That All You Got? Freedom from Unforgiveness – The Lord Has More for You – Purity 879

 

That All You Got? 
Freedom from Unforgiveness – The Lord Has More for You – Purity 879

Purity 879 11/03/2022 Purity 879 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of the of the clear still waters of Queechy
lake comes to us from a friend or share this photo on social media from what
they think may be their last paddle of the season on Saturday October 29^th.  however in the comments of the photo’s post a
friend playfully challenged our paddling enthusiast, asking the question “That
all you got?”

Well is it?  knowing
the weather in upstate New York, the challenger may have a point. While we are
in November now and can reasonably expect anything from snow to near 70 degree
temperatures, like today, we don’t know always know what the future will hold
and what we will be capable of unless we challenge ourselves to stretch and the
see just what it is we can do. Rather than looking at the limitations on our
lives we should ask the question can I do this?

well it’s Thursday again and I share this photo of a
kayak on a lake as another visual example of a pathway of sorts to encourage my
friends to get on or keep walking on the path of Christian discipleship because
while things may be impossible for man Christ said that all things are possible
with God and while we think we might not be able to do something in our own
strength, if it is in His will, God will help us to accomplish things we never
dreamed of being possible.

Last night I led one of the men the from the Freedom
in Christ course through the Steps to Freedom in Christ and while he admitted
to having thoughts that denied that the process of going through the steps in
repentance would be successful, a funny thing happened. After he forgave all
the people in his life for all the offenses they have ever done to him, those
condemning and doubting voices were silenced.

I have to admit that for a second there I thought I
was going to have to square off against  manifestation of the enemy but together we
prayed, stood in the authority that we had in Jesus Christ and after the step
on forgiveness the rest of the process was relatively peaceful as this man
confessed rebellion, pride, and all the known sins in his life, renounced and
broke spiritual soul ties to people in his sexual past, and cancelled any
generational sins of his ancestors.   The
work of repentance of the Holy Spirit and this man’s faith brought to the table
was mighty to behold and at the end of the process when I asked him to listen
in an extended moment of silence, he reported that things were quiet in his mind,
and he had an abiding sense of peace.

Unforgiveness can be a real stronghold that can keep
us in bondage to bitterness and to the literal spiritual forces of darkness.

So which was it? Was it demons, the hardness of this
man’s heart, or the baggage of a past filled with abuse that kept him from
knowing peace?

The answer to that question might be only known by
the Lord himself but the good news is that when we come before the Lord and
forgive those who have offended us, the bondage of bitterness is broken.
Something that many people would consider impossible: to forgive.

When we come to faith in Jesus Christ, we receive
the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin and to guide us in the way we should go.
But the Lord is gracious and allows us to have free will, to freely choose what
path will take in life. We can choose to live life like we’ve always had before
coming to Christ, according to the worlds and our own wisdom, or we can listen
to the Holy Spirit and the wisdom of the word of God to know and experience the
abundant life that Christ has for us.

This life of Christian discipleship is
counterintuitive to how we’ve been conditioned to live without God, but it is
possible. With God, we can turn from the world’s ways, and we can be
transformed. We can have peace, joy, love, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
patience, and self-control. The fruit of the spirit grows in our lives when we
walk in the spirit and when we confess our sins and renounce the way we used to
live we remove all the limits on what God can do for us.

So as we draw into the 4th day of the work week
remember to ask yourself from time to time: that all you got?

The world, the flesh, and the devil will tell you
that it’s all over, that it’s best to just pack it in and not try anything new,
to just play it safe and stay safe in the shadows of what you’re familiar with.

But Jesus Christ invites us to: “come and see”.

The Holy Spirit invites us to know what faith is and
to experience his power to transform us and to give us a life of meaning and
purpose that few in this world know of.

God the Father has made you for a purpose and He
wants to have peace with you, through faith in Jesus Christ, and for you to be
conformed in his image, to be the person that He created you to be.

So let go of the sins of the past, in Christ you’re
forgiven, and because you’ve received God’s forgiveness, cast off the burden of
bitterness that comes from holding on to offences against others by forgiving
everyone for everything from the heart, as the Lord commands you.  

God doesn’t want us to suffer anymore from the
things that people have done against us. The solution to our problem of
bitterness is forgiveness: to set the captive free and to realize it was you.

So keep walking and talking with God then follow the
word of the Lord and the Holy Spirit, and you will discover that you have a lot
more life to live, a lot more things to do, and a lot more hearts to touch then
you thought you could.  with the Lord
you’ll discover they got a lot more of life left in store.

——————————————————————————————————

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

This morning’s meditation verse is:

Romans 12:9 (NLT2)
⁹  Don’t just pretend to love
others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good.

Today’s Bible verse encourages us to not be a pretender to really
love others, to hate what is wrong, and to hold tightly to what is good.

One of the biggest drawbacks to pursuing a life of faith in Christendom
is the perception that the people in the church are a bunch of phonies.
Unfortunately, our experience may actually bear out that perception as our past
relationships in the hallowed halls of the buildings called churches may have
been plagued by hypocrisy and quite possibly abuse.

Some people say they don’t want to be a part of a church because
of the hypocrites in the church. Unfortunately, the truth is there’s hypocrisy
in everyone’s lives. No one lives perfectly according to the standards that
they would like to hold themselves to. No one. The only perfect person was
Jesus Christ. And while we are called as Christians to follow Jesus the word of
God clearly points out that we will not be able to perfectly live like Jesus
did. That’s why we need Jesus!

So what do we do with this hypocrisy? We won’t be able to be
perfect but today’s verse I think is calling us to try to be genuine in our
faith: to really love others, hate what is evil, and to hold on to what is good.

If you don’t like the phonies in the church, don’t be one by
having the heartfelt intention to love our neighbors as ourselves and to love
the Lord God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength.

___________________________________________

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
Sermon on the Mount

Matthew 6

On
the Hidden Nature of the Christian Life

Hidden
Righteousness continues

What does Jesus say
about all that? He says: “Beware of practicing your righteousness before others
in order to be seen by them.” The call to be extraordinary is the great,
inevitable danger of discipleship. Therefore, beware of this extraordinariness,
of the way that discipleship becomes visible. Jesus calls a halt to our
thoughtless, unbroken, simple joy in what is visible. He gives a sting to the
extraordinary. Jesus calls us to reflection.

The disciples should
have this extraordinariness only by way of reflection. They should heed it,
watch out for it. The extraordinary is not supposed to happen in order to be
seen. This means that the extraordinary deed should not be done for the sake of
its being extraordinary. And it should not be seen just for the sake of being
seen. The better righteousness of the disciples should not be an end in itself.
Of course, what is extraordinary does have to become visible, it does have to
happen, but—beware that you do not do it in
order for it to become visible. Although the visibility of discipleship
does have a necessary reason, which is the call of Jesus Christ, it is never a
goal in itself. If it were, then the focus would no longer be on discipleship
itself; then a moment of repose would occur, our following would be
interrupted, and we would not be able to take it up again at the point where we
had stopped to rest. We would immediately be sent back to begin all over again.
We would have to take note that we are no longer disciples. So something has to
become visible, but—paradoxically: beware that it does not happen for the sake
of being seen by people. “Let your light shine before the people …” (5:16),
but: pay attention to the hiddenness! Chapters 5 and 6 collide hard against
each other. What is visible should be hidden at the same time; at the same time
both visible and not to be seen. The reflection we have mentioned, thus, needs
to be guided so that we do not stray into reflection about our
extraordinariness. Our paying attention to our righteousness is supposed to
support our not paying attention to our righteousness. Otherwise
extraordinariness is no longer the extraordinariness of discipleship, but the
extraordinariness of our own will and desire.

How are we to
understand this contradiction? First,
we ask: from whom should the visibility of discipleship be hidden? Not from the
other people, for they are to see the light of Jesus’ disciples shining. Rather
it should be hidden to those doing the visible deed of discipleship. They
should keep on following Jesus, and should keep looking forward to him who is
going before them, but not at themselves and what they are doing. The
righteousness of the disciples is hidden from themselves. Of course, they, too,
can see the extraordinariness, but not themselves in it; they remain hidden
from themselves. They see the extraordinary only when they look at Jesus, and
in him they do not see it as extraordinary, but as something obvious and
normal. So what is visible really is hidden from them, in obedience to the word of Jesus. If the extraordinariness were
important to them because it is extraordinary, then they would act like
enthusiasts, out of their own power, out of the flesh. But because Jesus’
disciples act in simple obedience to their Lord, they view the extraordinary as
only the normal act of obedience. According to Jesus’ word, the disciples can
do nothing else but be the light that shines. They do not do anything to
accomplish this; they are the light while following Christ, looking only to
their Lord. Precisely because what is Christian is necessarily extraordinary, that is, in the indicative form [“you are”], it is at the same time normal and hidden. Otherwise it is not Christian,
it is not obedience to the will of Jesus 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

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My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian
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Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)

Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship