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Monday, December 5, 2022

Roughing it Through - Purity 906


Roughing it Through -  Purity 906

Purity 906 12/05/2022 Purity 906 Podcast

Purity 906 On YouTube: 



Good morning,

Today’s photo comfy beach furniture in the foreground of palm trees, blue skies, and the blue water of the Caribbean Sea comes to us from a friend who is “roughing it for a bit” while on a December vacation at the Westin Cozumel in San de Miguel de Cozumel, Mexico.   Looking at this scene, I can almost feel the warm Caribbean breeze coming off of the water and can imagine the smell of coconuts or pineapple from suntan oil or a virgin Pina Colada.  

But to paraphrase a line from the rapper, ICE-T from the intro of his song Body Count: “Stuff ain’t like that! It’s real messed up”!  

Yup, It’s Monday and the 5th day of December in Upstate NY and while I am going to delight over the fact that there is no snow in the forecast in my neck of the woods, I’m not on vacation in the Caribbean, so it’s back to work and I can only expect to be enjoying the brisk air of the great outdoors with a current temperature of 22 degrees, and an expected high of 44 degrees, and sunny skies!   

But seriously, the joy of the Lord is my strength, and because of Him I can simultaneously have joy for my friend in the Caribbean, not envy, and actually find joy on Monday morning for the relative “goodness” of my forecast because I know it could always be worse! For December in NY, I’ll take it!

I am well rested this Monday morning after a weekend with my wife at our countryside home and am filled with the joy and anticipation of my own Christmas vacation that is only a couple of weeks away.  

So to remind you all of a couple of the letters on our Joy finding acronym,  MT has found joy this morning in 4 out of the 5 letters of “GAMES” - 

1 – G – Gratitude - for right now – feeling good physically, emotionally, and spiritually at this present moment while writing, thank you very much

2 – A- Anticipation – looking forward to things in the future, like the temperature rising today, and my Christmas vacation in a couple of weeks! 

3 – M – Memories – reflecting on good things in the past, like my past weekend with my wife! 

4 – E- Experience – I have joy in the experience of writing and recording this journal/ blog/podcast entry! and can plan other experiences that give me joy! 

The “S” is singing – and I will spare you that, I guess, but I will probably do that on the drive to work!

No wonder why my life is filled with joy! But as I stated, while anyone can work “GAMES” to get joy out of their experience of life, when you have a relationship with the Lord, through faith in Jesus Christ, you have the joy of the Lord and the peace that goes beyond all understanding because YOU KNOW – you are forgiven, you are loved, and YOU’RE “GONNA LIVE FOREVER…. Gonna Live For Ever”  Okay got the singing out of the way too!

And speaking of getting things out of the way…. 

I know… what about those times in life when people, things, or circumstance are “rough”, and it is difficult to find joy?  When “stuff ain’t like that” when they are “real messed up”?    When are people, places ,or things blocking your goals?  

Well,

James 1:2-5 (NLT2) tells us
2  Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.
4  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
5  If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.

The joy of trials of course can only be experienced when you go through them with God, when you ask Him to give you strength and wisdom, He will help you either to overcome or to endure them and sometimes it’s a little bit of both.  

On Saturday, my wife, stepdaughter, and I faced the “negative circumstances” of a rainy day, blocking our goal, to enjoy some time doing some holiday themed outdoor activities.  But when that negative circumstance faced us, I recalled the indoor holiday splendor of Yankee Candle Village in South Deerfield Massachusetts and suddenly we were on a road trip and was pleasantly surprised to watch my wife and stepdaughter who are “not into candles” have their minds changed by the quality scents that they discovered at Yankee Candle Village! Afterwards, we stopped at Friendly’s and overindulged with food and ice cream.  So although we faced the negative circumstances, we discovered something spontaneous that salvaged the day but as the darkness fell, we were ready get home to relax.  

Unfortunately, however, we weren’t done with facing obstacles to our “goals”.  With thoughts of “That was fun, but I just want to go home” dancing in our heads we began our return trip, getting on MA 112,  where we discovered a tree in the middle of the road blocking our way!

I don’t know if you are familiar with travelling through Massachusetts and Vermont in the Green Mountain Area of New England, but it probably won’t surprise you that there are not a whole lot of options for alternate routes.  But when we saw that we couldn’t go forward my wife did the best that she could to navigate using my phone to find us a way around the blocked road. 

SO we back tracked a way and started taking side roads that quickly turned into winding dirt roads! But the GPS eventually self-corrected and announced that it found a way! So we followed it and reemerged on MA 112, hoping we were past the obstacle we encountered.    

But the first road sign I saw was very familiar and the next one confirmed to me that we were going right back to where we started!  So with no confidence that we would find a way around the tree I just drove towards it hoping that someone had called the county or state to remove it.  

But it hadn’t been that long, and cars were lined up on either side of the tree.  Unbelievably, I just started responding, by putting on a head lamp I keep in my car and leaving the car and walking up the hill to “go help”!

As I walked up, the person in the car ahead of me, said “If they need help moving things, let me know!”  “Okay…” I thought… focusing on the massive trees that had fallen in the road.  

I was member of the line crew for a few years and did “pole break” callouts at night before so I guess this wasn’t my first rodeo with picking up the broken things before and I as I walked up to the scene decided to take of my glasses, as I wasn’t going to be doing any reading, and I didn’t think it would fill the men I encountered with confidence when “Jerry Lewis” or “Poindexter” showed up to help!

When I got on the scene one man was standing watching as another man was struggling to pull his chainsaw out of the huge tree in which it was stuck. In fact there were 2 chainsaws stuck in the tree, the second chainsaw guy had apparently left to go get chains or a bigger saw or something, leaving a bystander to watch this other chainsaw guy to struggle.  

I just started to “do what I could” to “get the stuff out of my way”.  So I just started grabbing tree limbs and broken off sections of trees and throwing them into the darkness on the side of the road.  The bystander immediately got the idea to do the same.  So while chainsaw guy was playing tug of war with tree to get his saw free we were able to clear a quarter of the road on the left side.  Another guy showed up stating he had a truck and a chain that could be used to pull the tree and left to go get it and bring it up.  While truck guy was gone, other men showed up to clear branches, and thank God – chainsaw guy got his saw loose and revved it up and used better tactics to make “big tree” into smaller pieces. 

Truck guy showed up and even though we didn’t end up using his truck or chain it was a good thing that he did.  Chain saw guy was making good progress but there was a huge branch of the tree still overhead and he wasn’t clearly. While the other men were either just standing around or were clearing branches, I and truck guy voiced our concerns that chainsaw guy was about to risk injury by not thinking and just cutting.  Luckily he listened to “truck guy’s” suggestion to “Cut it from the other side” because  he was planning to cut by reaching up – something you shouldn’t do.  So he got safely out of his own way and with a decisive cut, the overhead tree like branch came safely crashing down!

Chainsaw guy just had to do one more cut and I and one of the first guys on the scene who had helped me move a few other sections of tree prior to this were able to lift up the last piece and clear the road. Throughout, I just kept working and throwing everything into the project, clearing everything from mini trees to twigs off the road and encouraging the other men, with a “That’s it brother”  or a “Way to go” where appropriate.    

With the road cleared,  we all celebrated for a second and then we were off to our vehicles, an impromptu band of brothers had “got ‘er done” with never introducing ourselves or knowing where we were from.  As I ran back to my car, “Truck guy” gave me a hearty “Good job” and other motorists shouted their “thanks”.   I was pumped by the adrenaline of the moment and just very satisfied with my efforts and by the fact that we could get out of there.

So in life, you may run into obstacles that you can get around.  We avoided a rainy day by finding something indoors to do.  But even though we tried to get  around that tree, there was no way to go but to go through it.  

And that’s life, we face life head on, and we use our wisdom and abilities to deal it with the best we can.   I know that this story sounds like a great tale of men overcoming the elements, but I won’t beat my chest and say, “we did it”.  Because I know the One who is really in charge, and I know that He was with us.  Nobody got hurt. Believe me, people could have.  While “Truck guy” didn’t get to use his truck or chain, God put him there to speak wisdom into the situation. 

While I was, saying “Yo! Brother, watch you’re back!’, truck guy’s experience and direction gave chainsaw guy a moment to think and to be safe.  As chainsaw saw guy took his instructions, and the other men just stood around at a distance, truck guy and I looked at each other and smiled and shook our heads, knowing that we just might have been instrumental in saving chainsaw guy embarrassment or injury. 

So while some people, may doubt that God had anything to do with this situation, I point out our safety and success here all under His watch and he was instrumental in bringing all of these men together to “do good” for others.  

So, I know it’s Monday and we may have to “rough it for a bit”, for real, but let’s remember that “all we can do is all we can do “and no matter what we face, when we keep walking and talking with God, we can endure or overcome whatever obstacles we face in life, and we can do it with joy!

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

This morning’s meditation verses are:

Hebrews 6:10-12 (NLT2)
10  For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers, as you still do.
11  Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true.
12  Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God’s promises because of their faith and endurance.

 Today’s verses encourage us because it points out the fact that “GOD knows, and He will not forget” how hard we work and how we love and care for others.  

Often in life, we can feel that nobody appreciates what we do, how hard we work or how much we do to take care of others. Those feelings of not being appreciated can make us feel like we are being taken for granted and cause us to become depressed.  

But today’s verses tell us that God sees what we do, that He will not forget our efforts to work and love others, and that we should continue to “keep doing what we are doing” because He sees it and will reward us. We will inherit the promise of God because of our faith and endurance.  

So have faith, endure all things on your plate, and keep working and keep loving others because its’ the right thing to do, according to God, and because we can trust that God won’t forget it and will lead us to “good things” in His kingdom, forever and always.

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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.

The Church of Jesus Christ and Discipleship

Chapter Nine

Baptism

In the Synoptic Gospels the concept of discipleship can express almost the full breadth and content of relations between the disciple and Jesus Christ. In the Pauline texts, however, this concept recedes almost completely into the background. Paul’s primary concern is not to proclaim the story of the Lord’s earthly life to us, but rather his presence as the risen and glorified Lord, and his work for us. This requires him to develop a new and distinctive terminology. Paul derives this new terminology from the special nature of his subject matter; its purpose is to capture what unites the proclamation of the one Lord who lived, died, and rose again. To express the full witness of Christ requires more than a single set of terms. Paul’s terminology thus confirms that of the Synoptic Gospels, and vice versa. Neither terminology is intrinsically preferable to the other. After all, we do not “belong to Paul, or to Apollos, or to Cephas, or to Christ”; instead, our faith rests on the unity of the scriptural testimony to Christ. If we hold that the Christ Paul proclaims is still present to us in the same way, whereas the Synoptic Gospels testify to a presence of Christ which we no longer know, we break up the unity of scripture.[2] True, many regard the use of such language as reflecting thought that is grounded in history and in keeping with the Reformation. But in fact, it is just the opposite, namely, religious enthusiasm of the most dangerous kind. For how do we know that Christ is still present with us today in the way that Paul proclaims? How else, but from scripture itself? Or should this perhaps be the place to talk about an experience of Christ’s presence and reality that would be free and independent of the word of scripture? But if it is indeed scripture alone that assures us of Christ’s presence, then it must be scripture as a whole, the scripture which also testifies to the ongoing presence of the synoptic Jesus Christ. The synoptic Christ is neither more nor less distant from us than the Christ of Paul. The Christ who is present with us is the Christ to whom the whole of scripture testifies. He is the incarnate, crucified, risen, and glorified Christ; and he encounters us in his word. The different terminology with which the Synoptic Gospels and Paul communicate this message does not undermine the unity of the scriptural testimony.

What the Synoptics describe as hearing and following the call to discipleship, Paul expresses with the concept of baptism.

Baptism is not something we offer to God. It is, rather, something Jesus Christ offers to us. It is grounded solely in the will of Jesus Christ, as expressed in his gracious call. Baptism is essentially a paradoxically passive action; it means being baptized, suffering Christ’s call. In baptism we become Christ’s possession. The name of Jesus Christ is spoken over baptismal candidates, they gain a share in that name; they are baptized “into Jesus Christ” (είζ, Rom. 6:3; Gal. 3:27; Matt. 28:19). They now belong to Jesus Christ. Having been rescued from the rule of this world, they now have become Christ’s own.

Baptism thus implies a break. Christ invades the realm of Satan and lays hold of those who belong to him, thereby creating his church-community [Gemeinde]. Past and present are thus torn asunder. The old has passed away, everything has become new. The break does not come about by our breaking our chains out of an unquenchable thirst to see our life and all things ordered in a new and free way. Long ago, Christ himself had already brought about that break. In baptism this break now also takes effect in my own life. I am deprived of my immediate relationship to the given realities of the world, since Christ the mediator and Lord has stepped in between me and the world. Those who are baptized no longer belong to the world, no longer serve the world, and are no longer subject to it. They belong to Christ alone, and relate to the world only through Christ.

The break with the world is absolute. It requires and causes our death. In baptism we die together with our old world. This death must be understood in the strictest sense as an event that is suffered. It is not as if we were asked to bring about this death ourselves through various kinds of sacrifice and renunciation. That would be an impossible attempt. Such a death would never be the death of the old self which Christ demands. The old self cannot kill itself. It cannot will its own death. We die in Christ alone; we die through Christ and with Christ. Christ is our death. It is for the sake of community with Christ, and only in that community, that we die. In baptism we receive both community with Christ and our death as a gift of grace.[12] This death is a gift of grace which we can never create for ourselves. True, in this death judgment is passed on the old self and its sin. But out of this judgment rises the new self which has died to the world and to sin. This death is thus not the final, angry rejection of the creature by its creator but rather the gracious acceptance of the creature by the creator. This death taking place in baptism is the gracious death which is ours through the death of Christ. It is the death in the power and community of the cross of Christ. Those who become Christ’s own must come under his cross. They must suffer and die with him. Those who are granted community with Christ must die the grace-filled death of baptism. That is the rule of the cross of Christ under which Jesus places his disciples. Christ’s death and cross were cruel and hard; however, because of our community with him, the yoke of our cross is easy and light.[15] The cross of Christ is the gracious death, which we die once and for all in our baptism; the cross to which we are called is our daily dying in the power of the death accomplished by Christ. Baptism thus means to be received into the community of the cross of Jesus Christ (Rom. 6:3ff.; Col. 2:12). The believer is placed under the cross of Christ.[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/@MT4Christ247

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), 205–209.

Sunday, December 4, 2022

Bible Study with the Cincotti's - The Lampstand - 12/04/2022


 

Today's Bible Study, Authored by Arthur Cincotti. 12/04/2022

Listen to our Bible Study Discussion at: The Lampstand Podcast

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


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The Lampstand

 

“Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent.”  Rev. 2:3

 

Much is known about the church in Ephesus from Scripture and tradition. Paul left Timothy in charge of the church there following his release from his first Roman imprisonment. John is also believed to have moved to Ephesus somewhere between 66 and 70 AD. There, it is believed that John wrote his gospel. Acts 19 tells of some of the dramatic events that occurred in Ephesus during Paul’s visit there, and Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus is replete with doctrine.

 

Why would Jesus, in Revelation, make such a bold rebuke to the church in Ephesus?

 

The lampstand is described in Ex. 25:31-40. It is make of pure gold, one piece, ornamented with almond blossoms. Though the dimensions are not given, vrs. 39 says, “It shall be made of a talent of pure gold, with all these utensils.” about 75 lbs. The almond blossoms come out early in this region of the Middle East; around late January. Arron’s rod was made of almond wood. When Arron’s  rod budded, in Num. 17, it designating the tribe of Levi as the priests and settled the complaints against Moses by the children of Israel. The lampstand was placed in the south portion of the Holy Place, opposite the table of showbread, and was the only source of light. There was a wick, fueled by olive oil which had to be refilled daily by the priests.

 

In the parable of the ten virgins, Mt. 25:1-13 we see the use of oil lamps and a reserve of oil. From this we receive that oil is a type of

the Holy Spirit.

In Jn. 8:12, Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

 

But in Mat.5:14 Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. A city that is sit on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.”

 

The transfer of authority to preach the gospel to the church, by the power of the Holy Spirit is a timeless injunction. Yet we see that this fuel, or source of power must be replenished. Mt. 25:1-13

 

Since the Holy Spirit is a person – the third Person or the Trinity – it would make sense to suggest that we may nurture a relationship with the Holy Spirit. The manner in which we nurture a relationship is to first listen, and then to agree, and then to obey.

 

The office of the Holy Spirit is to “help” Jn.14:16; To teach, Jn. 14:26,

“He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment;” Jn. 16:8; and “He will guide you into all truth” Jn. 16:13

 

The gifts of the Spirit are expressed in I Cor. 12:1-11, and the fruit of the spirit is described in Gal. 5:22,23; the first fruit being “love”.

 

The church in Ephesus was indicted, “you have left your first love.” Rev. 2:4

 

But they were a busy church!

 

It seems as though we can do, without listening, agreeing, nurturing, or obeying. “The Feast of the Harvest, the first fruits of your labors” Ex. 23:16 and vrs 19, “The first of the first fruits” meant the best and the first of the products of Israel’s labors.

 

When a church loses it’s lamp, it loses it’s influence. No longer the light of the world. How can Is. 9:2 be fulfilled?

         “The people who walked in darkness

         Have seen a great light

         Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,

         Upon them a light has shinned.”

-----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/@MT4Christ247

 

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

Saturday, December 3, 2022

I am Free and I am Home - Purity 905

 I am Free and I am Home -  Purity 905 

Purity 905 12/03/2022 Purity 905 Podcast

Purity 905 on YouTube: 



Good morning,

Today’s photo of the pink and purple clouds of sunrise from the point view of the backyard of my countryside home in Easton NY comes to us from TammyLyn Clark who was tending to her pets when see looked to the right to see this beautiful sunrise. 

Well It’s the first Saturday of December 2022, and it is my prayer that all who read or hear this message will not be so busy in your holiday shopping and preparations for Christmas that you miss out on  the beauty of the season.

I don’t know what it is about December but just last night I was marveling over how I was just over come by peace and love just sitting at the dinner table in the presence of my wife preparing dinner while Christmas music played.  December, for me anyway, brings with it a sense of things wrapping up, or things coming to an end, of a sense that “we made it through another year”, and that we are in the “home stretch”. And this culmination of the year and Christmas celebration brings with it an emphasis on the things that are important: Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the love that we enjoy with our loved ones that are reflected by songs like “I’ll be home for Christmas” or “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” or “The Christmas Song”, you know, the one with “chestnuts roasting on an open fire”. So last night I was feeling like an old nostalgic, sappy mess, as I was just “feeling the love” pour out of me as I listened to the music and stared at my wife.

I am so grateful for my wife and this morning I was reflecting on our lives together and just got that Michael Bublé Song: Home that ends with: 

… you always believed in me

Another winter day
Has come and gone away
In even Paris and Rome
And I wanna go home
Let me go home

And I'm surrounded by
A million people I
I still feel alone
Oh, let me go home
Oh, I miss you, you know

Let me go home
I've had my run
Baby, I'm done
I gotta go home
Let me go home
It'll all be all right
I'll be home tonight
I'm coming back home.”

 

As much as I absolutely adore my place “down by The River” in Stuyvesant, my home is wherever TammyLyn is and the reason I can say that is because no one, other than God, has loved and accepted me as much as she has.  And most importantly, she loves and accepts me for who I am in Christ and encourages me in my walk of faith, even though it was contrary to the way most of the world walks.

 

It increasingly pains my heart to see how most of the world is enamored with the things of this world and how all of us, before coming to Christ, build up our identities around our preferences, activities, and hobbies, and thus separate ourselves from the Lord by living independently of Him.  

 

My decision to follow the Lord has not been without its costs. I have been rejected, insulted, abandoned, and betrayed because of my faith. I always have accepted the losses because I know that the value of the things I have lost or the relationships that have been broken pale in comparison to the immense value of my relationship with God and my eternal destiny with Him, but it doesn’t mean they didn’t hurt.  However, regardless of the pain, that suffering makes the decision to follow the Lord to be even more compelling.

 

“I didn’t suffer all of this, to walk away from the Lord now!”

 

Plus, the Lord delivered me out of so much darkness, that I simply can’t imagine ever going back to the ways things used to be in my life. Occasionally, I’ll be tempted to “give it a rest” or to second guess some of the choices I have made on the path of Christian Discipleship but when I honestly evaluate the situations I faced and the outcomes that have resulted on this faith walk,  I quickly dismiss those thoughts because I simply can’t imagine an alternative road that would have been any better.  

 

Part of that journey is TammyLyn.  The Lord revealed to me that there was simply “no other” woman for me and that her coming into my life was a result of my faithfulness to follow Him and that our coming together as man and wife has elevated my life to heights of joy, love, and purpose that I simply could not have imagined.   

 

And it is because of our faith in Christ that we have a “home” in each other.  

 

It was my decision to be faithful to launch a discipleship ministry, and her decision to seek the Lord in her life that brought us together. 

 

And it was only with the understanding that this decision to follow the Lord would define the rest of our lives, that we became man and wife. 

 

And now we are just doing it. 

 

Last night, after dinner and spending time together, I felt the pull of sleep coming on hard but was reminded by TammyLyn that we hadn’t read the second chapter of the gospel of John yet, as our plan is to  read through that book before Christmas.  

 

So we opened up our Bible’s and read it.  That might not seem like much, but it displays the reason why there was “no other” for me but TammyLyn.  Simple faith, dedication to follow the Lord, come what may, is what I needed in a wife and the Lord gave it to me in TammyLyn.  

 

After emerging victorious over my addictions and all the brokenness of my past because of the Lord’s presence in my life, there was simply nothing and no one that I would allow me to compromise my decision to follow Him.  I was prepared to go the rest of my life alone rather than stop being the person God wanted me to be. 

 

In TammyLyn, I don’t have someone to support me in my decisions to follow the Lord, I have someone to actively encourage and inspire me to be faithful and to be bold and courageous to pursue all that the Lord has for me.  

 

I am free and I am home, in Christ of course, but the Lord was gracious to send me a woman to share this life of freedom, peace, and joy with.  

 

SO to anyone out there who is alone, let me encourage you not to ever compromise your relationship with the Lord by becoming involved with someone who doesn’t know Him or who isn’t actively seeking to obey Him.   Paying the Lord lip service doesn’t cut it for a life partner.  It’s better to walk alone rather than to walk through life with someone who is just pretending to love God and who is actually consumed with themselves or the things of this world.  

 

The Counting Crows song “A long December” is a melancholy song that reflects the winding down spirit of the year, where we might be suffering pain, exhaustion, or loneliness causing us to “laugh a little slower”, or “talk a little lower” but it also speaks the hope that the next year will be better than the last.   

 

I don’t know if you really know who you are in Christ. I don’t know how free you are. I don’t if you have a “home” where you can authentically live out your faith and experience all those things, but I can tell you without a doubt that if you keep walking and talking with God, this year can be better the last because the longer we walk according to His wisdom and ways and stay in His presence, the more we leave the darkness of our old lives behind and the further we step into the plans that He has for us.   

 

So rejoice and take some time to “feel the love” of the season and pour out the love God has given to you to all the people in your life.  It is a “wonderful life” only when we acknowledge it as a gift from God and fully realize the value of it when we are redeemed in Christ.

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

This morning’s meditation verses are:

Mark 10:42-45 (NLT2)
42  So Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them.
43  But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant,
44  and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else.
45  For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

 Today’s verses show us that the power and authority we receive through Jesus, is best used in the service of others and that our greatness in His kingdom will reflect what we give rather than what we receive.  

Teachings like this from Jesus, I believe, are met with the highest levels of skepticism imaginable because they are so counter intuitive to the way our world system operates.  

The corporate world will occasionally try to adapt the principle of being a “servant leader” by encouraging managers to invest in their team members and to develop the people on you “team” but generally the higher levels of corporate power are accomplished by Machiavellian ends justifying their means and some cutthroat power moves.  

One of the men from a Freedom In Christ course that I lead testified of his corporate success being cut short when he rose through the ranks up to a certain point only to discover that he was determined to be “too nice” for upper management and was fired, leaving him feeling betrayed and utterly disillusioned with the business world.  

He rebounded eventually but his testimony revealed that he was quite shaken by the experience of learning the truth of how things “really were” in the world.   

“Nice guys finish last” isn’t a phrase I just made up and there are lots of people who can testify of their experience where this seems to be true.  

But Jesus says otherwise.  Why? Because He is the Truth, He knows the Truth about final outcomes. 

There are tons of verses in the Bible about this paradox of how the wicked seem to prosper but other verses show us that the wicked will receive justice: like

Deuteronomy 32:35 (NLT2)
35  I will take revenge; I will pay them back. In due time their feet will slip. Their day of disaster will arrive, and their destiny will overtake them.’

 

And

 

Romans 12:19-21 (NLT2)
19  Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, “I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the LORD.
20  Instead, “If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads.”
21  Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.

So we overcome evil by doing good and as today’s verse teach us we will be considered great in God’s kingdom through being a servant to others like the way Christ was a suffering servant for us.

___________________________________________

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.

The Church of Jesus Christ and Discipleship

Chapter Eight

Preliminary Questions, concludes

 

All this makes it abundantly clear that we cannot play off the narrative of the calling of the disciples against other parts of the gospel account. It is never a question of our having or taking on the same identity as the disciples or other people in the New Testament. The only issue of importance is that Jesus Christ and his call are the same, then and now. His word remains one and the same, whether it was spoken during his earthly life or today, whether it was addressed to the disciples or to the paralytic. Then and now, it is the gracious call to enter his kingdom and to submit to his rule. The question whether I ought to compare myself with the disciple or with the paralytic poses a dangerous and false alternative. I need not compare myself with either of them. Instead, all I have to do is to listen and do Christ’s word and will as I receive them in both of these biblical accounts. Scripture does not present us with a collection of Christian types to be imitated according to our own choice. Rather, in every passage it proclaims to us the one Jesus Christ. It is him alone whom I ought to hear.[9] He is one and the same everywhere.

Thus, when we ask the question of where we can hear Jesus’ call to discipleship today, there is no other answer than this: listen to the word that is preached, and receive the sacrament. In both of these listen to Christ himself. Then you will hear his call![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/@MT4Christ247

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), 203–204.

 

Friday, December 2, 2022

Encouraging Prodigals to Accept the Invitation to Purpose - Purity 904

 


Encouraging Prodigals to Accept the Invitation to Purpose -  Purity 904    

Purity 904 12/02/2022 Purity 904 Podcast

Purity 904 on YouTube : 


Good morning,

Today’s photo of a parking lot across from my place of work, in Albany NY, under the last light of day which is sandwiched underneath the dark clouds reflecting the fact that evening was descending over the land comes to us from yours truly as I decided to capture  this moment from the first day of December of 2022 after an extended day of work.  My last job was a physical challenge that kept me at work later that I would have hoped for but there was something about the way the light of day was beneath the clouds of night and the contrast of the man made lights here that made me pause to take a breath, to enjoy what I was seeing, and capture it before racing home to rest.  

Some times the work day, or the work week,  is long, but there is nothing quite like the satisfaction of knowing that you met the challenges that faced you successfully and “got ‘er done!” That satisfaction can even make you appreciate the view of a parking lot!

Well it is Friday, Thank You God! and I for one am looking forward to the end of today’s work day because no matter what I face today, I will do my best, and Lord willing will be safely and joyously reunited with my beloved wife, TammyLyn, at our countryside home later this evening. And it is my prayer that all who read or hear this message rejoice over what they got done this week and will get done today, and will enjoy this evening and the weekend that lies ahead.  

For three days, my electronic personal assistance whose name begins with an A, had been warning me about a high wind advisory for my area but it wasn’t until late yesterday afternoon when I was working aloft on a ladder hanging a drop wire on a backyard telephone pole on S Manning Boulevard did that warning seem to be warranted. I was on the third pole odfa four pole drop hanging project, throwing a ball of string through tree limbs to guide the drop to its final destination when suddenly the winds began to gust and caused me to suddenly remember Alexa’s warning and causing me to immediately call on the Lord!

“Okay, Lord you didn’t send me up this pole and get me this far just to knock me down, right Father? I mean, Abba, okay DADDY GOD? I know I’m not one of call you, Daddy, but if you want to hear it, come one Daddy God, let’s cool it with the winds okay? We are almost home here. In Jesus, name I pray?, Amen.”

That may not be a verbatim transcript to our conversation but that basically included all of the elements of my prayer.  It may sound silly but I believe God was listening because after I steadied myself the gusting wind subsided.   I know many would doubt that this lull in the wind was “answered prayer” but I’ll take it!

You see God is with us at all times and when we talk to Him and listen for His guidance, you will begin to see phenomenon that will make a compelling case for the existence of “God with us.”  

After getting home last night, and fellowshipping with my wife via Facebook Messenger, with a December Bible study where we are reading through the gospel of John, once chapter a day, to prepare our hearts for the celebration of Christmas, I was ready to call it a night but I was please to see my son, Brennan and was even more pleased at our conversation.  

My son Brennan turns 21 on the 21st and unfortunately, like most of us at his age, hasn’t really had a vision for what he wants to with his life.  Graduating late in 2020, Brennan’s attempts at college has been unfulfilling and he has been unmotivated to pursue work opportunities, and I have had the difficult task of being patient, loving, and encouraging while he has been not doing much with his life. 

My busy schedule and two household existence results in seeing my adult children like ships passing in the night for the most part. So, yes, if you’d like to pick up the theme from yesterday’s blog, you can add “You are not a good father.” to the devil’s accustations of “You are not a good Christian” and “You are a hypocrite!” that were recently thrown at my feet. But I’m not really hearing that or agreeing with that lie from the pit of hell.  

Since my divorce from their mother that began in 2018 and was final in 2019, I did everything in my power to assist my kids to transition from teenagers to adults by teaching them to drive, establishing a new home where they could live in peace, and encouraged them to go to college and follow whatever path they wanted to pursue in life, with the emphasis on being independent and responsible.   My daughter, Haley, who to outsiders may seem shy and timid, took my advice and got an Associates degree and a job at Lowes where she has become one of the more senior cashiers. 

But Brennan, stagnated after covid-19, taking a “gap year” sitting around my house.  After that he did go to school and seemed to thrive by becoming involved with the theatre program at HVCC, but he encountered some not so wholesome elements in the student body there that lead him into confusion, a bad relationship, and disillusionment and academic ineptitude, resulting in his decision not to go back to school this fall, which frankly I was fine with because I felt his “friends” who were confused about their genders, sexuality, or into recreational drugs, even though Brennan is straighter edge than I ever could have hoped for, were best left behind and separated from.

But Brennan hasn’t worked anywhere, at all during all of this time, either, so he has just been sitting around, playing video, streaming, and staying up late at night.   So I have just been waiting for him to DO SOMETHING, anything else, as his inherited and saved for college funds have depleted.  

So when I saw him last night, I reminded him that he turns 21, in 19 day this morning, and that after that I am no longer financially responsible for him and that I would discontinue providing to his savings as I have been doing since he was a child and that the policy of my home is that anyone living under my roof that isn’t going to school, will pay rent.  I advised him that he could do whatever he would like to do with his life but, after a grace period of one month, for January, if he wasn’t in school, he would have to start paying rent in February, as sister is already doing after she decided to not to continue in her studies.  

This may seem harsh to some, but it is my intention to teach my adult children to be accountable, responsible, and independent and to face the realities of this world. So, I gave him the news and we had a good conversation about his different options going forward. I’m not sure what he will decide but one of the options, the one I am asking for prayers for, is that Brennan considered going to nursing school with the possible future goal of becoming a doctor!  I don’t know what will happen but I laid on the encouragement rather thickly this morning via text as I felt in my spirit that this may be what the Lord is calling my son to do.  So prayers for my son, choosing the path, whatever it is, that God has for him, would be much appreciated.  

Because, I know that the One that can cause the winds to be still, sometimes will blow “wild ideas” into our attention as invitation for our destinies.  One minute you are confused and uncertain, and suddenly, something that seems daring, crazy, and good will occur to you.  At this point, the enemy will discourage you and say “You can’t do that” but at the same time the invitation is there waiting to be accepted…. The choice is ours to make.  And I say, go for it! God calls out to step on the waves, man! So go for it! Surf’s up dude! Be bold and courageous and see what it out there!

Whether we fall on our face and crash or if we are given a new direction of vitality and purpose, won’t be known unless we step out and see what the Lord has for us.  We have to take the step of faith into uncertainty and I have discovered the Lord does this REPEATEDLY in our lives when we walk in the spirit, but when we let go of fear and follow His call, oh brother!, do good things happen. Sure, sometimes we struggle, sometimes it’s scary, and sometimes we question what exactly it is we are doing, but when you honestly follow what you believe the Lord is calling you to, I discovered that no matter what the results are, there are no regrets. 

You did what you thought was best by seek the Lord and pursuing a righteous path. That’s all we can do. SO DO IT!

Enjoy your weekend, consider what the Lord is inviting you to pursue, and keep walking and talking with Him and even if you don’t where you are going to next, at least you will have some good, loving, and powerful company along the way.  

 

 

 

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

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

This morning’s meditation verses are:

1 Peter 4:10-11 (NLT2)
10  God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. 11  Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.

 Today’s verses just happen to fall in line with today’s message to trust the Lord by encouraging us to use our God given abilities to discover our purpose and to give God glory.  

God has made us and given us all our talents and abilities. The problem we run into in life is when we don’t acknowledge that and decide to use our talents and abilities for selfish gain or to satisfy our personal lusts, independent of God. The worst mistake we can make – and believe me most of the world is making it every day, is to establish our identity in the things of this world and to live our lives as if God doesn’t exist when we are supposed to live with Him and to be good stewards of the things He has provided us with for His purposes, which actually with personally benefit us too, and for His glory.   

Yesterday, while at work, I saw a person riding on a motorcycle and even though they were a bike, they had a sound system to rival any “car that goes boom”.  And so they were pumping out their “soundtrack”, the music they identified with and that told other people who they were.  I don’t what was playing but it wasn’t praise music, okay. In considering this person, I had such sorrow over them because they had believed the world’s lies about who they were. They were proclaiming a lot about themselves by their mode of transportation, their clothes, and their music but none of it pointed to God or would really endure and prove to be meaningful in time.  

In time fashions change, music changes, and our modes of transportation change. What is “cool” today is lame tomorrow.  And these things that we build up our identity in doesn’t age well.   God bless them but I think that the people who are locked into the music of their youth, whatever their age, are displaying a fundamental lack maturity or growth. Their preference show they are frozen in time and that despite of their age and the changes the world goes through, they are declaring that “their time, their music was best”, but it is decaying and fading away. 

But the Lord doesn’t fade away and the fundamental truth about us in Christ endures forever, so takes today’s verse as advice to use what you have as good stewards and to give God the glory, Amen.

 

___________________________________________

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.

The Church of Jesus Christ and Discipleship

Chapter Eight

Preliminary Questions

To his first disciples Jesus was bodily present, speaking his word directly to them. But this Jesus died and is risen. How, then, does his call to discipleship [Ruf in die Nachfolge] reach us today? Jesus no longer walks past me in bodily form and calls, “Follow me,” as he did to Levi, the tax collector. Even if I would be truly willing to listen, to leave everything behind, and to follow, what justification do I have for doing so? What for the first disciples was so entirely unambiguous is for me a decision that is highly problematic and fraught with uncertainty. What gives me the right, for example, to hear Jesus’ call of the tax collector as being addressed to me? Did Jesus not say quite different things to others on other occasions? What about the paralytic to whom he extended forgiveness and healing?[2] And what about Lazarus whom he raised from the dead? Did he love them any less than his disciples? And yet he did not call them to leave their profession and follow him, but left them at home with their families and their jobs. Who am I to recommend myself to do something unusual and extraordinary? Who is to judge whether I or others are not simply acting out of our own authority and religious enthusiasm? But that would definitely mean something other than discipleship!

There is something wrong with all of these questions. Every time we ask them, we place ourselves outside the living presence of the Christ. All of these questions refuse to take seriously that Jesus Christ is not dead but alive and still speaking to us today through the testimony of scripture. He is present with us today, in bodily form and with his word. If we want to hear his call to discipleship, we need to hear it where Christ himself is present. It is within the church that Jesus Christ calls through his word and sacrament. The preaching and sacrament of the church is the place where Jesus Christ is present. To hear Jesus’ call to discipleship, one needs no personal revelation. Listen to the preaching and receive the sacrament! Listen to the gospel of the crucified and risen Lord! Here he is, the whole Christ, the very same who encountered the disciples. Indeed, here he is already present as the glorified, the victorious, the living Christ. No one but Christ himself can call us to discipleship. Discipleship in essence never consists in a decision for this or that specific action; it is always a decision for or against Jesus Christ. And this is exactly why the situation was not any less ambiguous for the disciple or the tax collector who was called by him than it is for us today. The obedience of those who were first called constituted discipleship precisely in that they recognized Christ in the one who was calling them. For them, as for us, it is the hidden Christ who calls. The call as such is ambiguous. What counts is not the call as such, but the one who calls. But Christ can only be recognized in faith. That was true in the same way for the first disciples as it is for us. They saw the rabbi and the miracle worker, and believed in Christ. We hear the word and believe in Christ.

But did those first disciples not have an advantage over us in that, once they had recognized Christ, they received his unambiguous command from his very own lips and were told what to do? And are we not left to our own devices precisely at this crucial point of Christian obedience? Does not the same Christ speak differently to us than he spoke to them? If this were true, then we would indeed be in a hopeless situation. But it is far from true. Christ speaks to us exactly as he spoke to them. For the first disciples of Jesus it was also not as if they first recognized him as the Christ, and then received his command. Rather, it was only through his word and his command that they recognized him. They trusted in his word and his command, and thereby recognized him as the Christ. There was no other way for the disciples to know Christ than through his clear word. Conversely, therefore, to recognize Jesus truly as the Christ necessarily included a recognition of his will. To recognize the person of Jesus Christ did not undermine the disciples’ certainty about what to do, but on the contrary created that certainty. Indeed, there is no other way to recognize Christ. If Christ is the living Lord of my life, then I am addressed by his word whenever I encounter him; indeed, I do not really know him except through his clear word and command. There are those who object that this is precisely our dilemma: we would like to know Christ and have faith in him, and yet we are unable to recognize his will. This objection, however, springs from a vague and mistaken knowledge of Christ. To know Christ means to recognize him in his word as Lord and savior of my life. But that includes an understanding of his clear word spoken to me.

Suppose we say finally that, whereas the command the disciples received was unambiguous, we have to decide for ourselves which of his words is addressed to us. In that case, we have once again misunderstood not only the situation of the disciples, but also our own. Jesus’ command always has a single purpose: it demands faith from an undivided heart, and love of God and neighbor with all our heart and soul. This is the only aspect in which the command was unambiguous. Any attempt to carry out the command of Jesus, without also understanding it in this way, would again mean that we misinterpret and disobey Jesus’ word. However, this does not mean that we would have no way of knowing the concrete command.[6] On the contrary, we hear it clearly in every word of proclamation in which we hear Christ, but we hear it knowing that it can only be fulfilled through faith in Jesus Christ. The gift Jesus gave to his disciples is thus fully available to us too. In fact, it is even more readily available to us now that Jesus has ascended, by our knowledge of his transfiguration, and by the Holy Spirit that has been sent.[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/@MT4Christ247

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), 199–203.