Finding and Sharing a Good Place – Purity 779

Finding and Sharing a
Good Place – Purity 779

Purity 779 7/9/2022 Purity 779 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a lakeside campfire at sunset comes to us
from friend who shared this scene on social media back on July 2^nd
to describe their “current situation”. 
And even though my friend didn’t disclose their location or any other
thoughts on their current situation, we can assume from the setting and the
fact that they shared it that their current situation was a good one. And knowing
that my friend is pretty laid back and nonchalant, I am assuming that they
wouldn’t mind that I share it to emphasis two points as we go into the
weekend.  The two points that I want to
share are that:

1.   
life can be good, pretty general right?, and that

2.   
when we discover something that can make life good, we
can’t be blamed for sharing it.  

Some of the comments to my friend’s photo, shared with
good natured sarcasm I hope, revealed jealousy, envy, or accused them of
bragging about their current situation but I think my friend’s silent message
was not just bragging about their current situation, although it could be!, but
was simply sharing the fact that they were in a “good place” and it could even
have been a mild encouragement and hope that their friends would find a good place
too.  

Like I said, I think I know my friend’s heart, a little
bit, so I think their photo was shared with good intentions and so I am taking
a leap of faith trusting they won’t unfriend me and demand that I remove their
photo from the blog. 

This old friend was one of my old work friends from the
early days of my current career and our paths separated about 12 years ago,
maybe sooner.  We were both in our 20’s,
had the same job, and spent some time with others from the office hanging out
and drinking. We were work friends that have gone separate ways but they still
hold a fondness in my heart because of the good times we shared but also
because this friend, along with a few others from our “work friend group”, showed
me great kindness by unexpectantly appearing at my infant son’s funeral to give
their condolences.  

Their showing up at my son’s funeral was a small but
significant way in which they showed their care and friendship to me and while
I would never hold someone’s not showing up at a funeral against them, we
remember it when others show up when we are at our lowest.   

I myself am not the best friend when it comes to that,
going to funerals.  I struggled with the
specter of death in my earliest childhood. In my first experience with death,
at my maternal grandmother’s funeral, while my brothers were openly weeping and
were torn up emotionally, I tried to joke and cheer them up, I guess, in part
because I was uncomfortable with that raw emotion of pain that comes from
loss.  So rather than surrender to the
grief, I coped by trying to lighten up the situation.  Maybe I was just being pragmatic…I had been
sad for awhile and grandma was still dead… 
so let’s move along? I don’t know. 

But after that first experience, I kept the throws of grief
from invading my experience when someone died. I was rather matter a fact about
death, and chose to focus on the living and lightening the mood, maybe by
trying to show that life was still good? 
Again, that’s the way I coped with death I guess.  

Of course, with the loss of my sone in 2002, that coping
method got derailed as there was just no way to make light of that loss because
it shook the foundations about how I thought life should go.  And although I only knew him for a few months
I deeply loved my son, Holden. 

So, without any real faith in God, I was angry, depressed,
drunk, and lost for a few years until I started searching for meaning, and
eventually was pulled out of the darkness of a life full of error, when I heard
the message that saved my soul.  

Unfortunately, I am still not good with grief.  After he death of my son, the trauma made me
more matter a fact about the death of others. 
And if the person was advanced in years, forget about it.  If my infant son could die, why not them?

That’s the way life goes. 
People die and life goes on. And it does, that is true, but I would like
to emphasize that somewhat pragmatic, and perhaps cold response in the face of
death, was before coming to Christ…

Now I know just how valuable our lives are to God. He sent
Christ to die for us. And before we die He wants us to have peace with Him,
through faith in Christ alone, so we can go to a “good place” for all eternity
with Him.

And I also know now that grieving for others, and with
others, is okay. As good as life is, there is a time to grieve, as the word of
God tells us. We need time to process the trauma of the losses we suffer. 

Jesus wept when Lazarus died.  The guy with the most insight into the spiritual
realities of life and death, wept. He grieved with Martha and Mary, Lazarus’
sisters. And as much as it pained Jesus to delay his arrival and to allow
Lazarus to die, He suffered the pain, heart ache, and trauma of the loss of His
friend because Lazarus’ death and resurrection would be used to give glory to
God and to reveal that Jesus was the Messiah, The Son of God and God the Son

In John 11:25-26 (NKJV) ,
Jesus says to Martha, and to all of
us:
²⁵  …, “I
am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he
shall live.
²⁶  And
whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

If
you’ve read this blog before or heard my podcast, you know that I believe this!
And I want you to know that you can believe it too. Jesus is trustworthy and
through Him we can be forgiven and receive a new everlasting life.

While
I’m still not a “funeral guy”, although I did attend the wake of another
co-worker’s brother a few years back because I considered them a good friend, I
do share my condolences and pray for my friends who suffer losses and grieve
because I know about the pain of loss and I know that God grieves right along
with us, as He is always close to the broken hearted and seeks to heal us through
Jesus.  

So, I
may have gotten off track a little but the two points I wanted to make was that
life is good and that we should share the things we discover that make it
good.   

Through
His creation of this world and man, God has given us the power to create good
circumstances and to experience love for our partners, family, and friends. As
we share life together, even if it is just for a season or two, we are bonded
together by our common experiences and interests.  We grow closer together in love and can
really know that life is good. And it pains us when we lose those we have
walked through life with, but the pain of loss doesn’t take away the goodness
we have known in the past or the fact that life can still be good even in the
midst of our struggles.   So point one:
Life is a gift from God, and it is good!

And
as for point two, as we enjoy this weekend, it is my prayer that my friends
find themselves in a good place and find ways to experience the goodness of
life.  While we all can have different ideas
of what makes a good life, we can still respect each other’s opinions on what we
could do to experience life’s goodness. 
So if you like the ocean, the forest, the mountains, or the cities, go
to wherever and do whatever that reminds you that life is good.

I
encourage you to share those with us. They inspire us to do similar things and
they bring us joy when we see our friends are in a “good place”.   

But
before I go, as indicated above, I would encourage everyone who reads or
listens to this message to find the “good place” and to experience the goodness
of life that the Lord has for you through faith in Jesus Christ. 

A
relationship with God through faith in Christ will bring us to a “good place”
beyond this life but will also give us the ability to experience the goodness
of God in the world of the living.  So
start your walk by trusting in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, or just keep
walking in talking with God, if you already know Him.  

It is
in going back to God, continually, that we can repeatedly find that we are in a
good place and that the experience of the goodness of life can be something we
know every step of our walk from here to eternity. 

Have
a great weekend and God bless you all!

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

This morning’s meditation verse is:

Ephesians 2:6-7 (NLT2)
⁶  For he raised us from the
dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we
are united with Christ Jesus.
⁷  So God can point to us in
all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness
toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.

 

Today’s Bible verses speak about the spiritual
realities of our position with Christ in the heavenly realms through our union
with Christ and that we are evidence for God’s incredible kindness and
grace.   

Our walk of faith has us in Ephesians 2
again! I was moved to share Ephesians 2:8-10 on Thursday and our resource had
us share Ephesians 2:4-5 the same day. And now we are “filling in the blanks”
as our resource has us sharing the verses that bridge the gap between those sets
of verses.  So I take this “coincidence”
as an indication that God wants us to know about His grace and our secure
position with Him.  

Today’s verses assure us that somehow,
spiritually, we are seated with Christ in the heavenly realms! 

One of the items on the Who I am in Christ
list that I use as part of my regular spiritual practice is “I am a citizen of
heaven” drawn from Philippians 3:20. 
Ephesian 2:6 makes the list too “I am seated with Christ in the heavenly
realms”.  

These statements point to the fact that part
of our identity is that we are ALREADY in heaven, in a sense.  We are connected to Christ and while we are
not physically there yet, God wanted us to know through the Apostle Paul’s
letters that somehow in a way we can’t fully understand, we are already there!
We are already in heaven!!

While that can make us wonder “how can
this be”, we should rejoice!

And not only is our “good place” and
future and present reality an absolute certainty, God will also use all of us –
all of our stories – all of our lives – as evidence for His amazing grace and
kindness. 

His grace was so amazing that He saved
me, He saved you, and He saved so many others that are nothing like you or
me. 

No two life journeys are the same but
when we make peace with God every detail of our lives will be part of a story
that highlights the love of God that was displayed through the things He has
brought us through and that He has provided us with.

We get to play a part in God’s grand
narrative and our lives in Christ give Him glory! 

So rejoice over your present and future
place in heaven and go out there and see what’s next in a life that will bear
witness to the kindness and grace of God.

 

______________________________________________________________________

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

Today we continue sharing from Clinton E. Arnold’s
“Powers of Darkness”

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

They Are Part of Satan’s Kingdom

Paul’s
teaching on the powers called for a significant change in outlook for many of
his gentile converts. In popular belief, and especially in magic, they were
accustomed to thinking there were “good” and “evil” spirits. In magic it was
important to know the names of good and helpful spirits who could be called
upon to help and provide protection from evil spirits.

In line with the Old
Testament, contemporary Judaism and the teaching of Jesus, Paul taught that
there was one primary figurehead of evil, Satan, who commanded a host of
“spiritual forces of wickedness.” Paul would not have accepted the various
distinctions between good and evil spirits made by his gentile converts in
their pre-Christian experience. All the spirits called on and revered in magic,
astrology and the pagan cults were evil and “demonic.”

Satan, or the devil,
is “the god of this age” (2 Cor 4:4). While God is ultimately sovereign since
he is the creator of everything that exists, Satan has been allowed to exercise
a great amount of evil activity on the earth. John recorded Jesus calling
attention to the devil’s present authority by describing him as “the prince [archōn] of this world” (Jn 14:30;
16:11). While Satan’s authority is not absolute, neither is it trifling. He
wields all kinds of destructive influence over all levels of life and exerts
his greatest hostility against God’s redemptive purpose in and through the Lord
Jesus Christ

According to Paul,
Satan holds unbelieving humanity in his captivity. He “has blinded the minds of
unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of
Christ” (2 Cor 4:4). Even at the end of his apostolic career Paul’s convictions
had not changed. He regarded those opposing the ministry of the gospel as
having fallen into a trap of the devil “who has taken them captive to do his
will” (2 Tim 2:26). Elsewhere he described Satan’s activity as holding
unbelievers in “slavery.” Prior to the work of God’s redemption the Galatians
“were in slavery under the basic principles [stoicheia]
of the world” (Gal 4:3). At this point Paul brought into view Satan’s powerful
assistants who carry out the same malignant purposes as their leader. In Ephesians
Paul described the captivity in terms of unbelievers being “dead” in their
transgressions and sins. This was when they followed “the ruler of the kingdom
of the air” (Eph 2:1–2).

Through blinding,
holding captive, enslaving and keeping people in the sphere of death, the work
of Satan and his powers runs counter at every point to the loving, reconciling
and life-giving purpose of God in Christ. Satan has a multiplicity of schemes
to defraud and take advantage of people even after they become Christians (2
Cor 2:11; Eph 6:11). Although his character is dark and evil, he often presents
himself in a very positive light to further his deceitful work (2 Cor 11:14).

They Are Involved
in the World Religions

The
gentile converts to Christianity faced a very important issue: What kind of
perspective were they now to have on their former gods and goddesses? How were
the worshipers of Dionysus, for instance, to view their god now that they were
Christians? Was he truly a god, but of a somewhat lesser stature than the one
God? Or, was he merely a stone image who represented no real divine being?

Paul specifically
addressed this issue in his first letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 8 and 10).
Two questions faced the Corinthian church, which elicited the apostle Paul’s
response. They were concerned with (1) whether they could eat a meal in the
temple of one of the local gods, and (2) whether it was permissible to eat meat
that had previously been sacrificed to a god or goddess.

There was a
difference of opinion among the Corinthian believers on both of these issues.
It appears some of the more confident Christians, knowing that an idol has no
real existence (8:4), had no scruples with going into an idol temple and eating
a meal (8:10). The result of such action, however, was the spiritual demise of
other Christians. Seeing their more assured fellow believers exercise this
freedom gave the “weaker” Christians the courage to do the same and eat food
offered to a god (probably in one of the temples). A crisis of conscience
plagued the weaker Christians, with some returning to idolatry. It is very
likely that this situation was not merely a potential problem Paul was trying
to forestall, but that a few from the Corinthian church had actually returned
to their pagan worship.

Since Paul was
understandably very concerned about this situation, which was “destroying”
(8:11) some of these precious believers, he set forth a lengthy argument
advocating that the Corinthians should completely cut their ties with the pagan
temples, and that the stronger believers should be willing to waive their right
to eat idol food out of sensitivity to the conscience of weaker Christians.

One of the central
features of Paul’s argument is that there is a demonic character to
non-Christian religions. He agreed with the informed Corinthians in principle
that an idol has no real, independent existence (8:4). For the Christian, he
concurred, there is no God but the one true God; the pagan deities—Apollo,
Isis, Sarapis and the rest—are so-called gods. Nevertheless, Paul went on to
affirm some kind of real existence for these gods, noting, “indeed there are
many ‘gods’ and many ‘lords’ ” (8:5). In one sense he did believe in the
existence of other “gods” and “lords,” but in a qualitatively different way
than those who worshiped these beings. Paul will later contend that the images
represent demons (10:20–21) and not true divinities; they are not to be thought
of on the same level as the one God. In another sense, however, they are real
gods and lords in that they are subjectively believed to be such by those who
worship them; they are “real” to their worshipers. Also, for the “weak”
Christians at Corinth, these gods were still quite real in their “conscience”
or in their “awareness.” Their “intellectual conviction that there was only one
God had not been fully assimilated emotionally.”¹² The convictions
of their hearts had not caught up with their cognitive understanding. We cannot
underestimate how difficult it must have been for people accustomed to
believing in the reality of many gods suddenly to transform those years of
deeply entrenched religious conviction into a monotheistic framework. The fact
that these pagan gods really are “nothing,” however, does not make them any
less dangerous.

Paul later contended
that there is a close connection between idolatry and demonic activity. He argued,
“Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an
idol is anything? No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not
to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons” (10:19–20). In
Paul’s mind there are indeed supernatural beings associated with pagan
idolatry—the powers of darkness! In the span of two verses Paul used the word demon four times. He saw demons as the
actual recipients of the sacrificed meat (10:20). By eating and drinking in the
pagan temples, the Corinthians were drinking “the cup of demons” and eating at
“the table of demons” (10:21). In essence they were having “fellowship” (koinōnia) with demons, a fellowship
that should be reserved for their relationship to Christ alone (1:9). Communion
with the Lord Jesus at his table should completely replace participation at the
table of demons. For Paul, then, there was an intensely demonic character to
pagan religions in general.

For Paul this
position was not at all novel. It represented the established position of
Judaism. Moses’ song of praise to God, reflecting on the idolatrous behavior of
the Jews while they were in the wilderness, proclaims, “They made him jealous
with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols. They sacrificed
to demons, which are not God” (Deut 32:16–17). This attitude toward idols is
reflected elsewhere in the Old Testament and in the Judaism of the New
Testament period. Jewish belief closer to the time of Paul is well illustrated
in a second-century B.C. Jewish document, which, at this point, comments on the
idolatry of the sons of Noah:

And
they made for themselves molten images, and everyone worshiped the icon which
they made for themselves as a molten image. And they began making graven images
and polluted likeness. And cruel spirits assisted them and led them astray so
that they might commit sin and pollution. And the prince [of these demons],
Mastema, acted forcefully to do all of this. And he sent other spirits to those
who were set under his hand to practice all error and sin and all
transgression, to destroy, to cause to perish and to pour out blood upon the
earth. (Jubilees 11:4–5)

Another
Jewish document, dating just prior to the time of Christ, connects idolatry to
witchcraft and the demonic: “I have much grief, my children, because of the
lewdness and witchcrafts and idolatries that you will practice against the
kingdom, following mediums, soothsayers and demons of deceit” (Testament of Judah 23:1). The Testament
of Naphtali speaks of the Gentiles exchanging the worship of the Lord for
idolatry, which is also connected with the demonic: “The Gentiles changed their
order, having gone astray and having forsaken the Lord and they followed after
stones and sticks, having followed after spirits of deceit” (Testament of Naphtali 3:1).

In a similar way when
Paul wrote to the Romans, he indicted the Gentiles for exchanging the worship
of God for a lie. In his eyes they “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for
images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles” (Rom
1:23). What he said to the Corinthians in no way contradicts his statement to
the Romans. Paul went beyond describing pagan gods as lifeless images to affirm
that Satan and his powers of darkness have used these non-Christian religions
to hold humanity in bondage.

It is perfectly clear
why Paul urged the Corinthians to “flee from idolatry” (10:14). By maintaining
any kind of involvement with the pagan temples, the Corinthians were exposing
themselves to powerful demonic activity and compromising their allegiance to
the one true God. Some were being “destroyed” by this involvement (8:11). Those
with “knowledge” among the Corinthians failed to take into account the
extremely dangerous influence of the hostile powers of darkness that were so
closely linked to the non-Christian religions. Their baptism and observance of
the Lord’s table did not guarantee immunity from the treacherous activity of
the demonic powers. Likewise, neither were the people of Israel immune to the deadly
effects of idolatry, in spite of the fact that they too had been symbolically
“baptized” and had consumed “spiritual food” and “spiritual drink” (10:1–12).

Paul did make a
distinction between eating in pagan temples (which he regarded as participating
in idolatry) and eating in a private home food that had once been sacrificed to
a god (10:23–33). For the latter case, sensitivity to weaker Christians should
guide the stronger Christian; idolatry was no longer the issue. Paul, on the
one hand, advised them to “eat anything sold in the meat market without raising
questions of conscience” (10:25). Yet, on the other hand, he urged restraint to
the person who, by eating the meat in the presence of another (weaker)
Christian at the home of a nonbeliever, may offend the conscience of that
weaker Christian (10:27–29).

There is much to
learn from Paul’s handling of this situation at Corinth that is vitally
relevant for the church today, especially as we minister to people from a
background of various forms of pagan worship. Gordon Fee provides a very
fitting description of its relevance:

Those
who have been involved in the rescue of drug addicts and prostitutes, e.g., or
of people involved in various expressions of voodoo and spirit worship, have an
existential understanding of this text that others can scarcely appreciate.
Many such people must be forever removed from their former associations,
including returning to their former haunts for evangelism, because the grip of
their former life is so tenacious. Paul took the power of the demonic
seriously; hence his concern that a former idolater, by returning to his or her
idolatries, will be destroyed—that is, he or she will return to former ways and
be captured by them all the more, and thus eventually suffer eternal loss.

One
of the main principles that guided Paul’s reaction to the Corinthian situation
was the conviction that demons animate idolatry. For Paul idolatry consisted of
worshiping any handmade image. It involved worshiping and serving anything
other than the one true God. Participating in idolatry included everything
attached to the service and worship of the gods. For the Corinthians this
involved eating in the pagan temple.

By extension the
operative principle for us today is that all the various non-Christian
religions represent a special manifestation of the work of the powers of
darkness to deceive people and turn their attention away from the one true God.^[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