An Unexpected Turn – A New Life Out of a Bad Situation – Purity 700
Purity 700 04/08/2022 Purity 700 Podcast
Good morning,
Today’s photo of a view of sunny blue skies over palm trees and
a what looks like a man made “lazy river” comes to us from my brother, Mike, as
he was recently forced to make the best of a bad situation when his connecting Southwest
airlines flight home from Orlando was cancelled. Mike had to make other
arrangements “on the fly” with another airline to get home in a timely fashion but
still had to find accommodations for him and his family for a single day before
his departure. So this view comes to us from some unnamed hotel in Corpus Christi?
Texas?
Well, it’s Friday and just like my brother, Mike, who had to
make a change of plans on the fly, life often changes our direction and
sometimes if we are diligent to go in “the right direction” and keep a positive
attitude, we can even make the unexpected change a pleasant one.
Last night, I started facilitating a new Freedom in Christ Men’s
Discipleship group on Zoom and in order to introduce myself, I had to relate
who I was and it was funny to tell my story because where I am now is certainly
not where I ever thought I would be, but do you know what? That’s a really good thing.
Last night I got to explain how I spent most of my life as a person
who was only concerned with satisfying the lusts of the flesh and how I had
disdain for anything good and wholesome.
I got to describe how I subversively rebelled against authority and took
delight in breaking rules and the law at times without getting caught. I also
got to describe the hurt and heartache that resulted from my decisions to live selfishly.
And I got to describe what it felt like to live many years of my life with no
regard for God and with no hope. I
described how I denied the existence of God because I knew that if the
God of the Bible was real that meant I was on the highway to hell and that I
was doomed because I was incapable of changing my evil ways.
But then, thank God, I got to tell how my journey through life
took an unexpected change and how God didn’t just make the best out of my bad
situation but how He gave me a whole new life and how He gave me the power to
walk out of the darkness of my former life into a life that is defined by peace,
joy, and love.
How can this be? It’s
because of Jesus Christ.
His story and my story converged on March 19th, 2010
in a very real and dramatic way. While I
had heard about Jesus and the “good news” that He had died for the sins of the
world, on that day I came to know Him and how He died for my sins and all I had
to do to be forgiven of every mean, selfish, or stupid thing I had ever done,
or ever would do, was to put my faith in Him as my Lord and Savior.
I had always thought that I had to “be good” or somehow pay back
the Lord to be accepted but on that day the Holy Spirit used a gospel radio
message to relay to me the truth that there was nothing I could do to make
myself right with God and that salvation and forgiveness was a free gift that
was received through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
So I accepted the free gift and felt the joy of my salvation and
dedicated my life to the Lord and immediately started reading the Bible to try
to learn more about who God is and how I should live my life as a Christian. Although I didn’t think I could be a very
good Christian, I wanted to be a “real Christian” and try to follow where the
Lord wanted me to go.
And what a long strange, and at times very hard, but wonderful
trip it has been. I had a lot of
learning to do but what I have come to know is painfully simple but not
necessarily easy to do. Life comes from God and our best life is one that is
submitted to Him. The best life we can have is the one that is covered by the
atoning work of Jesus on the Cross and that applies the wisdom of the God’s Word
to our every day lives.
I was a rebel and I was always running away from what was good
and wholesome but about twelve years ago the embodiment of everything that is
good and wholesome caught up to me to invite me out of the darkness of my life
of confusion into the crystal clear clarity of a life in His light. God revealed to me that I was loved and I
didn’t need to keep running away. Through that gospel message I was assured
that I could be forgiven and welcomed into a new and eternal life.
So even though this was a most unexpected turn, I saw the truth
of the word that was given to me and I decided to follow where ever the Lord decided
to take me.
So this former rebel, would like to encourage you to stop
running. God knows your story and everyday is an opportunity to commit yourself
to joining His grand narrative where you can find forgiveness, peace, and
love. So start, or keep on, walking and talking with
God. He has the power to give you a new life and the only thing we have to do
to find it is to stop running and start walking in His direction.
___________________________________________________________
Today’s Bible verses comes to us from “The NLT Bible Promise
Book for Men”.
This
morning’s meditation verses are:
Matthew 25:37-40 (NLT2)
37 “Then these
righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you?
Or thirsty and give you something to drink?
38 Or a stranger
and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing?
39 When did we
ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’
40 “And the King
will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these
my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’
Today’s Bible verses are the words of Jesus Christ and they indicate
that He calls us to be kind and generous to others as service to Him.
Christ’s great commandments are to love God and to love our neighbors
as ourselves and here we have Christ confirming the call on our lives to serve
our fellow man. His words don’t just
indicate that serving others is a nice thing to do. Jesus indicates that when
we are kind and generous to others we are serving Him!
Rather than bowing down at some altar or doing other some solitary forms
of worship and adoration to the Lord, Jesus indicates that when we help others
God is receiving glory and honor through our efforts.
Sometimes we don’t want to help others. We blame the victim. They should take care of themselves, like we
do, right? Well Jesus indicates that
serving others is something we should do regardless of our feelings because our
“good works” represent Him and His love for mankind.
Christ has said that if we love Him we will obey His commandments and
here He commands that we serve and help others who can’t help themselves and
the way He words this is that we should view our helping others as service to
Him that is motivated by our love for Him.
Our obedience to God’s commandments should not be seen as an obligation.
Our obedience is rightly seen as a service to someone we love. This someone
just happens to be the One who made the universe and loved us enough to die our
sins. So love God by loving other people. He wants His loved poured out on all
of His creations and through our obedience we get to be a part of His heartfelt
desire.
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 June Hunt’s Overeating: Freedom from Food
Fixation.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes
and encourage all to purchase June Hunt’s books for your own private
study and to support his work. This resource is available on many
websites for less than $5.00.
J. How to Explain Why Weight Training Helps
Weight Loss
Many
people are physically unable to make weight training a part of their weight
loss program. Others stress exercise too much, but most balance burning
calories through exercise with consuming less calories through proper meal
planning.
The apostle Paul compared physical
training to spiritual training, and his words serve as an encouragement to us
all to subdue our bodies through self-discipline, not just for physical reasons
but also for spiritual benefit.…
“Everyone who competes
in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not
last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not
run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the
air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have
preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”
(1 Corinthians 9:25–27)
Haven’t
we all watched acrobats or other athletes with lean, powerful muscles perform
what seem to many of us to be physically impossible feats? Haven’t each of us
experienced a moment of envying their immense energy and muscle power, admiring
their physical prowess and perfect precision as they perform a rigorous
routine? And haven’t we all felt a tinge of guilt that we huff and puff just
walking up the stairs at work or watering the yard at home?
If you
want to turn your envy into positive action, then consider the ways weight
training can …
• Improve
basal metabolic rate or metabolism
• Produce
strong, sinewy muscles
• Multiply
muscle power
• Lessen
body fat
You
may not be interested in performing hair-raising feats, but you will appreciate
having additional muscle power that makes it possible to do the maximum amount
of work within the shortest amount of time.
You
will also want to consider the ways strength training can …
• Improve
strength of general body structure
• Increase
the thickening of tendons
• Build
up the density of bones
• Lower
the possibility of injury
Additionally,
weight training helps maintain good blood pressure, body posture, and general
appearance.
The
Bible gives these words of exhortation that can be readily and aptly applied to
weight training.…
“Strengthen your feeble
arms and weak knees.”
(Hebrews 12:12)
Excessive
Exercise
Question:
“Can I exercise too much?”
Answer: Yes. Aerobic exercise that exceeds
more than one hour increases the risk of injury due to fatigue. Increasing the
frequency of aerobic activity beyond five times per week does not give your
body a chance to fully recover and can even reduce your body’s capability to
defend itself against illness. Listen to what your body is trying to tell you
and heed what Scripture tells you.…
“Physical training is of
some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both
the present life and the life to come.”
(1 Timothy 4:8)[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
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These teachings are also available on the MT4Christ247 You
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Email
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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]
June Hunt, Biblical Counseling
Keys on Overeating: Freedom from Food Fixation (Dallas, TX: Hope
For The Heart, 2008), 39–40.
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