“Willing to Become Willing” - Purity 847

“Willing to Become Willing” - Purity 847

Purity 847 09/27/2022 Purity 847 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo a roaring fire, neatly contained, in front of a lake that is perfectly reflecting the nearby shore and the heavens above, comes to us from a friend who share view of their “perfect night on the lake” on social media back on August 13^th.  My friend lives in Greene County but as for the location of this lake your guess is as good as mine as my friend didn’t feel moved to share that information, perhaps with the motivation to keep the contentment they had found to themselves.  

Well it’s Tuesday, and while we should be wise and discerning in our choices of what information we will share, with whom, as someone who encourages others to experience their freedom in Christ, I am somewhat dumbfounded when I encounter others in the body of Christ who decide to not only choose to keep their information guarded from me, I get that, but who also seem to be hesitant to trust the Lord or themselves with the shadows of their pasts.  

This past weekend my pastor concluded his series on “emotional hygiene” – I am sharing the link to it on  the Ask, Seek, Knock Facebook Group today, (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098/permalink/678020323218516/) by addressing guilt and shame and how our faith in Christ and our relationship with God resolves these issues for good.   At the end of the message, Pastor Roscoe Lily invited people to come up and lay down whatever guilt and shame that people may have been carrying by humbling themselves before the Lord in prayer.   

It may not be surprising that only a few from the rather large crowd went forward, which could indicate that we have a healthy church filled with people that have repented of their sins successfully and already resolved any issues with guilt and shame or it could indicate that people with secret sins and who have guilt and shame preferred to remain in the shadows of our darkly lit worship center because they didn’t trust the Lord to help them and they didn’t want to step forward and expose their silent struggle in front of the entire church.  

I have only been going to Starpoint Church for less than a year in person and while the people I have met who serve in the church seem very friendly and the leadership seems solid in their Christian doctrine, I know that as in every church, some of the attendees may not be living out their faith to the point that they have victory over the sins that have plagued them and may live like most of their neighbors who are not ashamed of their complete lack of faith or who only grace a church with their presence at Christmas or Easter.  So when you don’t see people go up for prayer it is not surprising, most people want to keep their problems to themselves and certainly don’t want to make a “spectacle of themselves” in public. 

But I love the fact that my church gave people the opportunity to do it and it is my hope that the message touched people’s hearts so that they made peace with God and laid down their guilt and shame even if they didn’t leave their seats. 

One thing I learned when I went through, and then taught at and led, the Christian Recovery program, Celebrate Freedom, in my former church is that we are only as sick as our secrets and that our victory over sin is not about will power, it’s about our willingness to trust the Lord to help us and to follow Him. 

My new pastor gave his congregation the opportunity to trust the Lord and I know that when we are open and willing before our God amazing things can happen, things like freedom, victory, and transformation.   But those things all come from surrendering to God.  

I mean how can you “Let Go and Let God” if you “won’t go there” when it comes to things in your past.  How can you say “I don’t have to do that” or “I don’t want to do that” when you receive an opportunity to take a step of faith that could lead to the life of peace, joy, and love that you always wanted?   

But I get it.  This world teaches us to hide our pain and to not trust anyone.  So I’m not going to push you out of the shadows but I would encourage you to pray to the Lord to become “willing to become wiling” to trust Him with your guilt, to trust Him with your pain, to trust Him with your shame, and to provide you with His healing, freedom, and victory.   

So, don’t sweat it, after my LONG walk of faith, I understand when you feel you are not ready to “go there” but after all I have been through I know that I wish I had started trusting the Lord sooner and had not been so stubborn to be willing to follow Him.  

However, I will encourage you to keep walking and talking with God because if you do that I know that He will guide you in the way you should go and some day you will decide for yourself to “go there” with the Lord and become willing to receive all that He has for 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 146:8 (NLT2)
⁸  The LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are weighed down. The LORD loves the godly.

Today’s Bible verse assures us that the Lord will open the eyes of the blind, will lift us up when we are weighed down and that He loves the godly.  

The word of God is true and this verse should encourage us to live a godly life and to trust the Lord to lift us up and to open our eyes to the things we do not yet see.  

The Lord is alive and blesses those who follow Him in all kinds of ways. Trust Him and Follow Him. 

  

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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 Four

Discipleship and the Cross

“Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’

¶ “He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels’ ” (Mark 8:31–38).

The call to discipleship is connected here with the proclamation of Jesus’ suffering. Jesus Christ has to suffer and be rejected. God’s promise requires this, so that scripture may be fulfilled. Suffering and being rejected are not the same. Even in his suffering Jesus could have been the celebrated Christ. Indeed, the entire compassion and admiration of the world could focus on the suffering. Looked upon as something tragic, the suffering could in itself convey its own value, its own honor and dignity. But Jesus is the Christ who was rejected in his suffering. Rejection removed all dignity and honor from his suffering. It had to be dishonorable suffering. Suffering and rejection express in summary form the cross of Jesus. Death on the cross means to suffer and die as one rejected and cast out. It was by divine necessity that Jesus had to suffer and be rejected. Any attempt to hinder what is necessary is satanic. Even, or especially, if such an attempt comes from the circle of disciples, because it intends to prevent Christ from being Christ. The fact that it is Peter, the rock of the church, who makes himself guilty doing this just after he has confessed Jesus to be the Christ and has been commissioned by Christ, shows that from its very beginning the church has taken offense at the suffering Christ. It does not want that kind of Lord, and as Christ’s church it does not want to be forced to accept the law of suffering from its Lord. Peter’s objection is his aversion to submit himself to suffering. That is a way for Satan to enter the church. Satan is trying to pull the church away from the cross of its Lord.^[1]

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

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^[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, ed. Martin Kuske et al., trans. Barbara Green and Reinhard Krauss, vol. 4, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003), 84–85.

I Love You, Lord - Purity 846

I Love You, Lord - Purity 846

Purity 846 09/26/2022 Purity 846 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo a blazing sun with a crown of clouds over the cornfields and woods off of Waite Road in Easton comes to us from yours truly as I was “blinded” by the light of the last Setting Sun of September 2022 this weekend.  I must have been in the right place at the right time because just before this I was impressed by those wispy clouds as I walked up Waite Road but the sun was unremarkable with the landscape before me being shrouded mostly in the shadows of an otherwise chilly late September day. But as I turned to go back to my countryside home the sun seemed to positively explode with light and heat as I seemed to be directly in its path. The light was so bright that I had to squint to take this photo and it made me stop and wonder out loud: “Is Jesus coming back today, Lord?”  My question went unanswered but I replied:  “If so Lord, that’s okay with me!”  

And then I thought that maybe this was one of those “Paul on the Road to Damascus” moments where I would hear the audible voice of God with some direct instructions to follow.   But I didn’t hear any audible voice. 

But I still felt that absolutely wonderful in that light and thanked the Lord for the goodness of my life all the same and I let Him know that I loved Him with a smile and a simple: “I love you, Lord.”  

Hey, the people we love need to hear it. And although it may seem strange, I’m just following the Christ’s commandments when I tell my heavenly Father, I love Him.

In Matthew 22:37-40 (NKJV) in answering a question about which was the greatest commandment in the law: Jesus said:
³⁷   "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'
³⁸  This is the first and great commandment.
³⁹  And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'
⁴⁰  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

So how exactly do you love the Lord? You tell Him! I love you, Lord!

Some Christians wonder why their hearts and minds of faith don’t seem to be on the same page. Unfortunately, our experiences with our earthly fathers and our issues with authority in general can impact our view of God.  But He is significantly different from any earthly father or any authority figure.  

When you ponder the greatness of God, you should think: What’s not to love!

Everything good we have ever experienced was the results of God’s creation or provision.  That blazing sun: God. The earth below, the sky above: God.  My canine walking companion? God.  MY beloved wife, waiting for me in my country side home? God.  The food she prepared four dinner: God.     

Me, my mind, my body, the air that I breathe, and the long life’s journey through darkness and confusion to come to this place where appreciate all of this: God again.  

So yeah, I said it that Saturday afternoon, and I say it a lot, in various times and places: I love you, Lord.   You should try it sometime.   

In my love for the Lord sometimes I can get downright upset with my “neighbors” for not knowing Him and am tempted to chastise people to “seek the Lord” and stop breaking Him heart by ignoring His voice to come to Him and to live according to His wisdom. 

Then I remember how ignorant, rebellious, stubborn, and foolish I once was and still am in some ways when it comes to following the Lord’s perfect will for my life and then I ease back and decide to just offer a friendly encouragement to keep “walking and talking with God”.  

What I have to say to others is far less important than what God has to say and so this morning I am deciding to share what I read in Ecclesiastes this morning, because it’s the word of God, and because I want to love my neighbor as myself, by sharing with you all what I know I needed the most: the wisdom that comes from on high, the word that comes from the heavenly Father who loves you and seeks to help you.  

Ecclesiastes 5:1-20 (NASB)
¹  Guard your steps as you go to the house of God and draw near to listen

rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools; for they do not know they are doing evil.

²  Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God. For God is in heaven and you are on the earth; therefore let your words be few.

³  For the dream comes through much effort and the voice of a fool through many words.
⁴  When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it; for He takes no delight in fools. Pay what you vow!
⁵  It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay.
⁶  Do not let your speech cause you to sin and do not say in the presence of the messenger of God that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry on account of your voice and destroy the work of your hands?
⁷  For in many dreams and in many words there is emptiness.

Rather, fear God.

⁸  If you see oppression of the poor and denial of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be shocked at the sight; for one official watches over another official, and there are higher officials over them.
⁹  After all, a king who cultivates the field is an advantage to the land.
¹⁰  He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income. This too is vanity.

¹¹  When good things increase, those who consume them increase. So what is the advantage to their owners except to look on?

¹²  The sleep of the working man is pleasant, whether he eats little or much;

 

but the full stomach of the rich man does not allow him to sleep.
¹³  There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches being hoarded by their owner to his hurt.
¹⁴  When those riches were lost through a bad investment and he had fathered a son, then there was nothing to support him.

¹⁵  As he had come naked from his mother's womb, so will he return as he came. He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand.
¹⁶  This also is a grievous evil—exactly as a man is born, thus will he die. So what is the advantage to him who toils for the wind?
¹⁷  Throughout his life he also eats in darkness with great vexation, sickness and anger.

¹⁸  Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all one's labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him; for this is his reward.

¹⁹  Furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God.

²⁰  For he will not often consider the years of his life, because God keeps him occupied with the gladness of his heart.

So draw near to hear the Lord speak and be occupied with the gladness of heart that results from knowing that everything you have is a gift from God and you should enjoy it fully as you keep on walking and talking with Him

 

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

This morning’s meditation verse is:

Psalm 146:7 (NLT2)
⁷  He gives justice to the oppressed and food to the hungry. The LORD frees the prisoners.

Today’s Bible verss assures us that the Lord provides justice to the oppressed, food to the hungry, and He sets the prisoners free.  

God provides all the food on the earth so if you are hungry go to where the food is and be prepared to work for it. The nation of Israel had to gather the manna, the “bread from heaven”, in the wilderness, and the Apostle Paul told the Thessalonians.

2 Thessalonians 3:10 (NLT2)
¹⁰  Even while we were with you, we gave you this command: “Those unwilling to work will not get to eat.”

 

So for the hungry, the food is out there but I would encourage you to also feed on the word of God.  

 

As for justice, this is a fallen world where people literally get away with murder so some maybe tempted to say that “there is no justice” but that would be a short sighted view that denies the existence of a just and holy God who will punish the evil deeds that were not forgiven by the blood of Christ.

 

And finally, in this cancel culture, even though I have been set free from my former bondages of personal darkness , thank you Lord, if things continue to progress in the ways they are going, I could very well be imprisoned for my religious beliefs in some dystopian one world order society.  But even if I am muzzled and put in some gulag for Christians somewhere down the road, the bars and chains that I am imprisoned with won’t take away my freedom in Christ.

 

God’s kingdom is eternal and He sets us free by giving us new life in the spirit.  The word of God is true and as big as the promises in this psalm may seem. Each one of them is true and will be fulfilled one way or the other.

  

_____________________________________________

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 Three

Simple Obedience – continues

 

Fundamentally eliminating simple obedience introduces a principle of scripture foreign to the Gospel. According to it, in order to understand scripture, one first must have a key to interpreting it. But that key would not be the living Christ himself in judgment and grace, and using the key would not be according to the will of the living Holy Spirit alone. Rather, the key to scripture would be a general doctrine of grace, and we ourselves would decide its use. The problem of following Christ shows itself here to be a hermeneutical problem. But it should be clear to a Gospel-oriented hermeneutic that we cannot simply identify ourselves directly with those called by Jesus. Instead, those who are called in scripture themselves belong to the word of God and thus to the proclamation of the word. In preaching we hear not only Jesus’ answer to a disciple’s question, which could also be our own question. Rather, question and answer together must be proclaimed as the word of scripture. Simple obedience would be misunderstood hermeneutically if we were to act and follow as if we were contemporaries of the biblical disciples. But the Christ proclaimed to us in scripture is, through every word he says, the one whose gift of faith is granted only to the obedient, faith to the obedient alone. We cannot and may not go behind the word of scripture to the actual events. Instead, we are called to follow Christ by the entire word of scripture, simply because we do not intend to wish to violate scripture by legalistically applying a principle to it, even that of a doctrine of faith.

This shows that a paradoxical understanding of Jesus’ commandments must include a simple understanding, precisely because we do not intend to set up a law, but to proclaim Christ. That nearly takes care of the suspicion that simple obedience might mean some sort of meritorious human achievement, a facere quod in se est [to do what is in oneself], and a precondition one would have to fulfill for faith. Obedience to Jesus’ call is never an autonomous human deed. Thus, not even something like actually giving away one’s wealth is the obedience required. It could be that such a step would not be obedience to Jesus at all, but instead, a free choice of one’s own lifestyle. It could be a Christian ideal, a Franciscan ideal of poverty. It could be that by giving away wealth, people affirm themselves and an ideal, and not Jesus’ command. It could be that they do not become free from themselves, but even more trapped in themselves. The step into the situation is not something people offer Jesus; it is always Jesus’ gracious offer to people. It is legitimate only when it is done that way, but then it is no longer a free human possibility.^[23]

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astounded and said, ‘Then who can be saved?’ But Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, for God all things are possible’ ” (Matt. 19:23–26).

It can be inferred from the perplexity of the disciples about Jesus’ word and from their question—“Who, then, can be saved?”—that they believe that the case of the rich young man is not an individual case, but the most general case possible. They do not ask, “Which rich person?” Instead, they ask the general question, “Who, then, can be saved?” This is because everyone, even the disciples, forms part of those rich people, for whom it is so difficult to enter heaven. Jesus’ answer confirms this interpretation of his words by his disciples. Being saved by discipleship is not a human possibility, but for God all things are possible.^[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 Pathway of Christian Discipleship 

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^[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, ed. Martin Kuske et al., trans. Barbara Green and Reinhard Krauss, vol. 4, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003), 82–83.

Bible Study with the Cincotti's - Good Wisdom - Bad Wisdom - 09/25/2022

 

Today's Bible Study, Authored by Arthur Cincotti. 09/25/2022

Listen to our Bible Study Discussion at: Bible Study Podcast

Or watch the Video Zoom Session of our Study on YouTube: "Good Wisdom - Bad Wisdom" On YouTube

Good Wisdom / Bad Wisdom

 

“But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.” Js. 3:17

 

We live in a hyper-educated society. I’m not the first to say this, but James Joyce also said it of the early 20^th cen.

We have placed great emphasis on education. In truth, it hasn’t changed anything.

D. L. Moody said, “If you take a man who has been stealing bolts off the rail, and educate him, he’ll steal the whole train.”

 

The same hyper-educated scenario can and has seeped into the church. It’s one thing to know about God, but it’s an entirely different matter to know God.

 

Pr. James Finn use to say, “every great move of God begins in a cave and ends in a cathedral.” He was speaking of the comparison between David’s, “cave of Adullam” experience verses Solomon’s temple.

 

If we contrast the lives of these two kings of Israel we can discover   some interesting, and timeless principles that apply to the church throughout the ages as well as today.

 

David was a shepherd                            Solomon was a prince.

David was a musician                            Solomon, no indication

David wrote Psalms                               Solomon wrote proverbs

David became a man of battle               Solomon a man of intellect

David built a kingdom                           Solomon inherited it.

David was a man after God’s                 Solomon’s “wives turned

         own heart. I Sam. 13:14                             away his heart. I Kg 11:4

David had Nathan                                  Solomon, no prophetic voice

                                                                        he was on his own.

         It seems as though whenever the church moves into an intellectual mode of operation it equally drifts from power. See I Cor. 2:1-5;Also see Acts. 4:13

 

         Acts 17:16-34 tells of Paul’s experience in Athens, competing with some of the intelligentsia of the day; the Greek philosophers. Whenever we enter into a battle of wits conjecture wins the day, but manifest power is a daunting apologetic. In Mt. 12:22-27, the Pharisees (intellectuals) try to undermine Jesus by saying, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of demons.” But Jesus points out the fallacy of this logic.

 

         It is very important to study the Word of God and seek to understand it. II Tim. 2:15, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” But if we fail to cultivate our relationship with God, through prayer, and the application of faith, then all we will have is head knowledge.

The adage goes, “Too much word, not enough Spirit and you dry up; too much Spirit and not enough word and you blow up”

 

Paul says, “Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies” I Co. 8:1

 

         We must consider the heart behind our “Godly activity”. Do we genuinely long to see friends, family members, coworkers, etc. delivered from the bondage of sin, or do we wish, instead, to be thought perky, charismatic, right, exalted, and superior???

 

         Great evangelists of recent church history such as Peter Cartwright,  Billy Sunday, D. L. Moody, and George Fox the founder of the Quaker movement, were unschooled in theology, yet powerfully used by God to advance His kingdom here on earth.

 

         When we engage in a strictly intellectual gospel we run the risk of moving exclusively in our own strength. “The joy of the LORD is (our) strength,” Neh. 8:10 and our greatest joy comes only from knowing Him!!!

-----Join us for another Bible Study Next Week -------

or

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

A Time For Everything - Purity 845

 A Time For Everything - Purity 845

Purity 845 09/24/2022 

 Purity 845 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a the sun over cornfields and woods on the horizon just before setting comes to us from yours truly as I stopped for a moment to capture its blazing glory while I accompanied my canine friend, Harley, on our walk back to our countryside home yesterday afternoon.

I’m not sure what the weather was like in your neck of the woods yesterday but in upstate New York a brisk chill was in the air throughout the day that pointed to the undeniable fact that Autumn is here.  While the sun was still shining the chill in the air caused me to don my Carhartt hoody for all but a few moments of the day and the seasonal turn to colder temperatures sent a shiver into my soul as my life experience and, perhaps the enemy, whispered “Winter is coming.”

But first things first, even though there is Christmas stuff in the stores already and its wise to see the changing signs of the times and to be prepared, let’s slow it down a little so we can enjoy the current season rather than fearing what will come.  

While our direction as travellers on the path of Christian Discipleship is always forward, the way we experience the fruit of the Spirit of peace and joy is to not to be overly focused on the days ahead and its uncertain destinations so much that we fail to enjoy the journey in the here and now.  

This morning’s Bible Study brought me to Ecclesiastes chapter 3 and the text points to the fact that there is a time for everything, that man is to enjoy his life and labors on the earth, but is to do so in the fear of the Lord, knowing that our lives are finite and that the content of them will be judged by the One who gave them to us.   I was so moved by the wisdom of the text that I am sharing it today because I know that the wisdom of the word of God is the best thing I can share and I share it with the hope that it will encourage others to seek the Lord’s presence, wisdom, and ways.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-22 (NKJV)
¹  To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:
²  A time to be born, And a time to die; A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted;
³  A time to kill, And a time to heal; A time to break down, And a time to build up;
⁴  A time to weep, And a time to laugh; A time to mourn, And a time to dance;
⁵  A time to cast away stones, And a time to gather stones; A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;
⁶  A time to gain, And a time to lose; A time to keep, And a time to throw away;
⁷  A time to tear, And a time to sew; A time to keep silence, And a time to speak;
⁸  A time to love, And a time to hate; A time of war, And a time of peace.

⁹  What profit has the worker from that in which he labors?

¹⁰  I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied.
¹¹  He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.
¹²  I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives,
¹³  and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor--it is the gift of God.

¹⁴  I know that whatever God does, It shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, And nothing taken from it. God does it, that men should fear before Him.
¹⁵  That which is has already been, And what is to be has already been; And God requires an account of what is past.

 

¹⁶  Moreover I saw under the sun: In the place of judgment, Wickedness was there; And in the place of righteousness, Iniquity was there.
¹⁷  I said in my heart, "God shall judge the righteous and the wicked, For there is a time there for every purpose and for every work."

¹⁸  I said in my heart, "Concerning the condition of the sons of men, God tests them, that they may see that they themselves are like animals."
¹⁹  For what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies the other. Surely, they all have one breath; man has no advantage over animals, for all is vanity.
²⁰  All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust.

²¹  Who knows the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, which goes down to the earth?

²²  So I perceived that nothing is better than that a man should rejoice in his own works, for that is his heritage. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him?

 

Well I am not as wise as Solomon, who wrote this, or the Holy Spirit, who inspired it. But I have the answer!

Who knows that the spirit of the sons of men go upward? And who can bring us to see what will happen after we die?  

The Lord knows that and the Lord can bring us to see what will happen!   And God gives us this knowledge through His word and through the Holy Spirit revealing its truth to us. 

But the Lord was even more gracious to man by sending His living Word, Jesus Christ to earth to tell us the truth and to make a way to reconcile us to God.  

We don’t have to go “down to the earth”, to Hell, when we die because Christ came to earth to pay for our sins and when we place our faith in Him, just like He ascended into Heaven after His resurrection, we can be lifted up to a new life in God’s kingdom forever when we put our trust in Jesus.  

So enjoy your life this weekend, it is a gift of God. But fear the Lord and respect His righteous judgement, by acknowledging His sovereignty and by surrendering to His will for your life by making peace with Him through faith in Jesus Christ and by pursuing His purposes for you. 

Have a wonderful Autumn weekend and keep walking and talking with God.

 

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

This morning’s meditation verse are:

Psalm 46:1-2 (NLT2)
¹  God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.
²  So we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea.

Today’s Bible verses assure us that God is our refuge and strength and that we need not fear the calamities that we will face on the earth because He is always ready to help us in times of trouble.  

As someone who has walked through the fires of tribulations and trauma at various times in my 50 years of life, I can attest that it is much better to have a relationship with the Lord though faith in Jesus Christ in times of trouble rather than being all on your own.   

Other Bible verses tell us that God is close to the broken hearted and I know that is true as trauma breaks us out of the normal conceptions of our world view of “how life is” and reveals to us the harsh realities of life and death in times of loss. In that stark shock of our world being torn apart by loss, God who is omnipresent is available to comfort and to help us and we have a decision to make: will we come to Him and seek His help or will we turn from Him in bitterness and anger?   

I lost my infant son Holden, in March of 2002, as our nation was still overcoming the national tragedy of 911, and this personal loss ripped away the final shreds of an illusions I may have had about our lives being “safe” or secure. These losses woke me up to “ice cold world of life and death” but in the midst of my grief in the stark clarity of my new view of the world I simultaneously felt all alone but also had the sense that “I wasn’t alone”, that there was a presence with me that sought to comfort me. 

At the time, I think I thought that I was just seeing the world with eyes wide open but in hindsight I know that the feelings I had of how I was all alone but somehow wasn’t can easily be explained as God being present in my broken heartedness and that He was patiently sitting with me in my grief and would further reveal Himself to me when the time was right and I had stopped being angry and running away from Him.   

Of course, I was very angry, and very stubborn, and very rebellious, and purposely shut God out of my life by abandoning all semblances of Christianity in my life, but after the darkest days of my depression I sought meaning again, and even though I went in the wrong direction, my search for truth was rewarded in an instant by God’s grace.  

The truth of the gospel was allowed to come into my life by a seemingly chance encounter, as in the midst of my confusion of following the philosophies of Buddhism, I happened upon a gospel radio message and decide to mock it only to be brought to my knees in humble surrender the my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when I understood that faith in Him was all that was require to live. 

So 8 years later (just put that together this morning – 8’s are a significant number in my walk) , again in the month of March (just put that together this morning), the Lord showed me that He could be my refuge and strength and be my constant help in times of trouble.  I didn’t have to be alone anymore. I didn’t have to keep Him at a distance anymore. And so that day in March of 2010 I invited God, The Presence that I have known to be with me at various times throughout my life, to save me through His Son, Jesus Christ.

SO let me encourage you, no matter how the earth quakes or the mountains crumble into the sea, either literally or figuratively, in your life The Lord can be your strength and refuge. He is always ready to help us in times of trouble. 

He may not stop the tragedies from happening, but sometimes He will. But either way, He knows the end from the beginning and He knows that even the traumas we suffer can be used for good to help us to grow and to know Him and our place in His kingdom. So trust the Lord with your life by putting your faith in Christ, and seek Him at all times for His strength, wisdom, and love.

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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 Three

Simple Obedience – continues

 

How is such a reversal possible? What has happened that the word of Jesus has to endure this game? That it is so vulnerable to the scorn of the world? Anywhere else in the world where commands are given, the situation is clear. A father says to his child: go to bed! The child knows exactly what to do. But a child drilled in pseudotheology would have to argue thus: Father says go to bed. He means you are tired; he does not want me to be tired. But I can also overcome my tiredness by going to play. So, although father says go to bed, what he really means is go play. With this kind of argumentation, a child with its father or a citizen with the authorities would run into an unmistakable response, namely, punishment. The situation is supposed to be different only with respect to Jesus’ command. In that case simple obedience is supposed to be wrong, or even to constitute disobedience. How is this possible?

It is possible, because there is actually something quite right at the basis of this wrong argumentation. Jesus’ command to the rich young man or his call into a situation that enables faith really has only the one goal of calling a person to faith in him, calling into his community. Nothing finally depends on any human deed at all; instead, everything depends on faith in Jesus as the Son of God and the mediator. Nothing finally depends on poverty or riches, marriage or the single state, having or leaving a profession. Rather, everything depends on faith. To this extent, we really are right that it is possible to believe in Christ while we have wealth and possess the goods of this world, so that we have them as if we did not have them. But this is a last possible form of Christian existence, a possibility of living in the world, only in light of the serious expectation that Christ would return in the immediate future. It is not the first and simplest possibility. A paradoxical understanding of the commandments has a Christian right to it, but it must never lead to the annulment of a simple understanding of the commandments. Rather, it is justified and possible only for those who have already taken simple obedience seriously at some point in their lives, and so already stand in community with Jesus, in discipleship, in expectation of the end. Understanding Jesus’ call paradoxically is the infinitely more difficult possibility. In human terms it is an impossible possibility, and because it is, it is always in extreme danger of being turned over into its opposite and made into a comfortable excuse for fleeing from concrete obedience. Anyone who does not know that it would be the infinitely easier way to understand Jesus’ commandment simply and obey it literally—for example, to actually give away one’s possessions at Jesus’ command instead of keeping them—has no right to a paradoxical understanding of Jesus’ word. It is therefore necessary always to include a literal understanding of Jesus’ commandment in every paradoxical interpretation.

Jesus’ concrete call and simple obedience have their own irrevocable meaning. Jesus calls us into a concrete situation in which we can believe in him. That is why he calls in such a concrete way and wants to be so understood, because he knows that people will become free for faith only in concrete obedience.

Wherever simple obedience is fundamentally eliminated, there again the costly grace of Jesus’ call has become the cheap grace of self-justification. But this too constructs a false law, which deafens people to the concrete call of Christ. This false law is the law of the world, matched by an opposing law of grace. The world here is not that world which has been won over by Christ and is daily to be won over anew in his community. Rather, it is the world which has become a rigid, inescapable law of principles. But in that case grace is also no longer the gift of the living God, rescuing us from the world for obedience to Christ. Rather, it becomes a general divine law, a divine principle, whose only use is its application to special cases. The principle of struggle against the “legalism” of simple obedience itself erects the most dangerous law of all, the law of the world and the law of grace. The struggle based on principle against legalism is itself the most legalistic attitude. It is overcome only by genuine obedience to Jesus’ gracious call to follow him. The law is fulfilled and done away with by Jesus himself for those who follow.^[1]

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship 

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^[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, ed. Martin Kuske et al., trans. Barbara Green and Reinhard Krauss, vol. 4, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003), 79–81.