Can’t Hardly Wait – Coming of Age, Coming to Freedom – Purity 810
Purity 810 08/15/2022 Purity 810 Podcast
Good morning,
Today’s photo of the sun shining above a stand of
sunflowers comes to us from TammyLyn Clark as she captured this scene back on July
15th in. literally, her back yard.
My wife has an eye for seeing the simple good things in life that God
has provided and shares photos and art work that gives glory to God on her Facebook
Group: Art4Him (https://www.facebook.com/groups/5261251240632105)
.
She “created this group as a platform to share
“original” works of art to give God glory”. I sent out invites this
morning to virtually all my friends to join her group where she invites others
to “share their own…original art for the glory of the Lord” in whatever art
form you use, including “photography, painting, drawing, written word, poetry,
songs, dance and more”.
And she also asks that “If you would like to share
something from this group…reach out the artist FIRST AND (if sharing is
approved) credit the artist in your post.”
My wife had started this group awhile ago and I have
failed to utilize the wonderful photos she has shared for use on my blog, but
no more. Sometimes I am at a loss for
which photo to share each day and worry about whether or not the “artist” will
approve of me using their work. I have
had relationships broken over assuming my friends would want me to share their
work! But I have given TammyLyn credit this morning and I know she supports my
work fully, as I do hers. So I invite
you all to join Art4Him and encourage you to share your original artwork to
help lift someone’s spirit and to give God glory.
Well, it’s Monday again, and although I am sure most
of us could have waited for another work week to begin, I “can’t hardly wait”
for the next round of Freedom in Christ Discipleship Courses to begin. I know “back to school” may be a taboo phrase to drop around the youth and teachers
who are enjoying their summer vacations but, friends in different parts of the
country are already living in it and I look forward to the first session of the
Men’s Freedom in Christ Course that I will facilitate that will meet the first
Tuesday after Labor Day, in 3 weeks!
This morning I received an e-mail from Freedom in
Christ Ministries’ Eastern Regional Course Coordinator, Sue Huber, where she anonymously
shared some of the comments of the participants who have registered for the
course of why they want to take the course I will lead, in order that I could
begin praying for them before we begin.
Whether their reasons are to deepen their faith, to get
encouragement for their ministry work, to get help in renewing their mind from
negative mind states, or to receive assistance in overcoming personal and
spiritual conflicts of the past, I am super excited at the prospect of being
able to encourage these men and to help them either experience their freedom,
maintain it, or to deepen their walk with God.
As I thought about the fact that I “can’t hardly wait”
for the new session to begin, I remembered that there was a 1998 coming of age,
party movie of the same name. I don’t really recall the details of the plot,
but basically a bunch of teens graduate high school and go to a party. The film is an ensemble film and it follows different
characters as they struggle with personal dilemmas, relationship issues, and
the fears that surround facing the prospect of facing the future and finding
love and purpose as they leave adolescence for adult hood.
This movie came out when my college days were over,
but before I had kids with my ex, and although I still drank and did drugs like
a college co-ed in my privacy of my home, in many ways the “party was over”. That youthful exuberance sort of goes by the
way side no matter how much you drink or think you are “cool” when the classes
stop and the school seasons are less meaningful because you have entered the
working work and are full time “adulting”.
There are lots of coming of age party films that
highlight the misadventures of youth, like Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Animal
House, Losing It, The Last American Virgin, Porky’s, and Dazed and Confused. which
unfortunately encourage youth to think that the right of passage into adulthood
goes through experiencing wild times with alcohol, drugs, and sex.
Ironically the effects of these things that we think
will make us “real men and women” can actually do the opposite. Instead of freedom,
they can lead to bondage. Instead of liberation
that can result in situations where you are stuck dealing with the negative
consequences of momentary decisions for years.
Instead of growing up, scientific studies and brain science indicate
that addicts get “locked” in the stage of maturity they are at when they first
start using.
Ever wonder why some full grown adults are as
immature as they were in high school? Not
only is it possible that they never learned anything from school, according to
those studies they can be emotionally and mentally stuck in a mindset where they
are grown up adolescents!
Oh that’s not good, if science says that I guess
there is no hope for some people!
Well, that’s what the world would say I guess. They would tell you that once “an addict always
an addict”, or “you can’t teach a old dog new tricks” or that “there are
somethings that you will just have to live with as you will always
struggle with them”.
But God’s word says something else. Jesus said in
John
15:5 (NKJV)
5 I am
the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears
much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
If you have been trying to live without Christ, is
it surprising that not much has changed since high school in your mind, in your
emotions, or in your, soul? Without Him you
can’t do much. He’ says without Him you can do nothing.
The Cast of “Can’t Hardly Wait” were in their 20’s
movie when that movie came out. And even though we could watch that movie today
to see them go through their wild misadventures of their youth, the party has
long been over and now they are they in their 40’s! I didn’t do the research but you have to
wonder, did any of them “grow up”. I did a couple of quick google searches of
some of the cast members with the word “rehab” with wasn’t surprised that life imitated
art in some cases as fortune and fame in youth comes with many worldly temptations.
So even if you are famous you can struggle but I got
good news for the famous or the virtually unknow among us that struggle with
the transition of “adulting” and dealing with the lies we believed in our youth
that told us what it meant to be “free” or what it meant to be a “real” man or
woman. I have good news to those you
falsely believe that they will always suffer or those that believe they can
never change. Although it may seem like
you will never change and that some things are just impossible to get past or
to overcome, Christ said that
Luke
18:27 (NKJV)
27 But He said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible
with God.”
The Lord can set you free. God word declares:
2
Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV)
17 Therefore, if anyone is
in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold,
all things have become new.
Romans 8:1-2 (NKJV)
1 There is therefore
now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according
to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
John 8:36 (NKJV)
36 Therefore if the Son makes
you free, you shall be free indeed.
So I can’t hardly wait for the prospect of
encouraging some men who were bold enough to ask for God for help to discover
the person that God created them to be.
There are freedom in Christ courses available for anyone seeking help.
Register now at: https://www.ficm.org/…/freedom-in-christ-course-fall-2022/.
But I
understand that not everyone will be able to get this help. The class sizes are
limited and the times might not work for you.
But hey, I podcasted the classes I taught in 2021, so you don’t have
much of an excuse in my book.
I didn’t
have an online class to go to. All I had
was the word of God, a desire to follow the Lord to freedom His word speaks of,
and faithful men and women at a local church to encouraged me to keep coming to
church and to keep “walking and talking with God.”
So it’s
Monday, and we might have a lot of work to do in the days ahead of us. some of
which may seem impossible. But with God
we have hope and power to persevere and to accomplish all that He has for us,
if we simply abide in Christ and follow where He leads.
—————————————————————————————————————
Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible
Promise Book for Men”.
This morning’s meditation verse is:
Lamentations 3:25-26 (NLT2)
25 The LORD is good to those who depend on him,
to those who search for him.
26 So it is good to wait
quietly for salvation from the LORD.
Today’s verse speaks the truth that the Lord is good to those who
depend on Him, who search for Him, and who wait on Him.
Talk about discipleship instructions! Enough said?
Depend on the Lord – Pray to Him for help. Listen for His still quiet voice to guide you.
Search for the Lord – Read His word, Apply it, seek to do the good
works He has prepared for you.
Wait on the Lord – Abide in Him to give you peace and strength to
endure as you wait for Him to work in and through you.
Pressed for time today, but today’s verses are “keepers” to
encourage you to keep going where God calls you to.
______________________________________________________________________
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.
PART III Interpreting the Powers for Today
We
face two looming obstacles in interpreting the relevance of Paul’s teaching on
the powers for the church today. First, there is the problem of the perception
of myth. As pointed out in the introduction, Western society does not give
credence to the notion of spirits, be they good or evil. To introduce the idea
of evil spirits would be regarded by many as a reversion to primitive myth. We
therefore need to grapple seriously with how to draw out the contemporary
relevance of the biblical testimony on this theme.
The second major
obstacle we face is the wide variety of interpretations of the powers.
Traditional Christian interpretation has stressed the influence of the powers
on individuals. The bulk of popular charismatic books on this topic have dealt
primarily with ministering to people who are demonized. Both of these views, of
course, assume that evil spirits really do exist.
More recent
interpretations of the powers, in contrast, have stressed the influence of the
powers on a broad scale; that is, the powers work primarily through the
structures of our existence. Such things as economic and political structures
are most often cited (capitalism, socialism, nationalism), but also other
factors enter in, such as social patterns, cultural norms, group habits (like
the development of a mob spirit in a soccer match). These “structures of existence”
are then viewed as the objects of our spiritual struggle and may be regarded as
demonic. Many who hold to this view would regard the biblical references to the
powers as symbols of nonpersonal realities.
For most Christians,
however, the issue of the pervasive influence of the powers has not been a
matter of careful reflection. The following section will address the problem of
how to interpret the powers for the twentieth-century setting and lead us into
thinking more deeply about the influence of the powers on individuals and on a
much broader scale. The remarks are limited to the implications we can draw
from the apostle Paul’s teaching on the principalities and powers. Much more
can be gained by a careful study of the life of our Lord, the book of Acts, the
rest of the New Testament epistles and the book of Revelation.[1]
—————————more
tomorrow————————
Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage
Breaker”, “Freedom in Christ” series of Discipleship Classes via the
mt4christ247 podcast!
at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts
(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available
on Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartradio, and Audible.com.
These teachings are also available on the
MT4Christ247 You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTxjSNstREpuGWuL0bF3U7w/featured
Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your
progress, and to be encouraged.
My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian
encouragement via her Facebook Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on
Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)
Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1]
Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness:
Principalities & Powers in Paul’s Letters (Downers Grove,
IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 1992), 167–168.
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