After the Storm – Self-Deception Series 7 – Purity 1096

After the Storm – Self-Deception Series 7 – Purity 1096

Purity 1096 07/17/2023 Purity 1096 Podcast

Purity 1096 on YouTube:

Good morning,

Today’s photo of the simple beauty of blue skies and
white clouds over green trees comes to us from yours truly as I decided to
reach back in the archives of my iPhone photos to discover this scene that I
captured somewhere along Hughes Rd in the Amsterdam, Charleston area of upstate
NY  on July 24^th of 2020.
Obviously, there are no distinguishing landmarks in this photo, but my iPhone not
only captured the date and the time (12:09pm) that I took this shot, but it also
captured the location to be on Hughes Rd, Co Route 129, North of the Wilcox
Cemetery and Corona Rd, and West of the Schoharie Creek!  It was Friday afternoon, and I was undoubtedly
at work but took the time to admire the serenity of the blue sky and capture
it. And now I share it with you.

Turning my imagination, if not my memory, back to
that time it was not only the year of the Covid-19 Pandemic and a slow return
to a “new normal” for life as we know it on a national scale, it was just over
a month after my successful exodus to my new home down by the River in
Stuyvesant NY after two years of hard work and the turmoil of going through a
messy divorce.   Even though things hadn’t
returned to normal for our country (and never will) and all the details of the
conditions of my divorce were not fulfilled (and still aren’t) and I was still
working two jobs, I know that when I took this photo I wasn’t dwelling on the negative
circumstances but was feeling the joy of a pleasant summer afternoon and being
alive and free in Christ. 

The turmoil of Covid-19 and my divorce was over, in
my book anyway. The storm had passed and there was a clear sky to enjoy in the
present, and because I was determined to surrender to the Lord’s will for the
rest of my life, there was and is, a good future ahead.

Of course, after a divorce and Covid-19, there are
voices out there that would tell you that you could never be happy again. Life
was forever changed after allm so how could you ever  expect to be “happy again”?  But I wasn’t looking to find circumstantial
happiness by going back in time to the way things were. I was following God’s
truth and will to fulfill my purpose in Christ. So, I wasn’t buying the lie
that “I would never be happy again”.    

And that brings us to our current series on Self-
Deception, where we have decided to investigate some of the ways we deceive
ourselves by walking through Step 2, Deception Vs. Truth, of the Steps to
Freedom in Christ to see what ways we may have been deceived by “the world” and
ourselves and in what ways we have wrongly defended ourselves. 

So we present the sixth “Way You Can Be Deceived By
the World”:

6. Believing that I need more than Jesus to meet my
needs of acceptance, security, and significance. 

The scripture references for this point are:

2
Corinthians 11:2-4 (NLT2)
²  For I am jealous for you
with the jealousy of God himself. I promised you as a pure bride to one
husband—Christ.
³  But I fear that somehow
your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was
deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent.
⁴  You happily put up with
whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one
we preach, or a different kind of Spirit than the one you received, or a
different kind of gospel than the one you believed.

And

2
Corinthians 11:13-15 (NLT2)
¹³  These people are false
apostles. They are deceitful workers who disguise themselves as apostles of
Christ.
¹⁴  But I am not surprised!
Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
¹⁵  So it is no wonder that
his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. In the end
they will get the punishment their wicked deeds deserve.

Wow, I have to
tell you that even though I have taught the Freedom in Christ Course more than once and have lead several people through the Steps to Freedom in Christ, I never looked up
the scripture references for these “lies” and am somewhat surprised by what is “being
said” through pairing this statement with those verses.  

First of all, let’s
look at the “lie” – that we are deceived because we believe we need something
more than Jesus to feel accepted, secure, and significant.  I hate to say it but, this lie is like the “free
space” in bingo – very few people, Christians included, can honestly admit that
they feel completely accepted, secure, and significant because of their
relationship with Christ alone.  We have
been raised in the world that has taught us to “seek that which is best” and to
go after the things we want to “pursue happiness” as some grand quest to
personal fulfillment.  Because of the
idea that happiness is somewhere out there, our relationship with Christ or our
“religious” or spiritual lives are often considered to be just one small, separate,
piece of the happiness pie.  

But the
scripture references to this “lie”, indicate that if we somehow deviate from
our pure devotion to Christ (that we need something more than Jesus to feel
accepted, significant, and secure) we are deceived, believing a “different gospel”,
and if we spread the lie that we need more than Jesus we could be considered to
be in league with Satan, false teachers, and subject to God’s wrath.  

That’s how
sufficient Christ is, if we believe we need something more than Jesus for our
acceptance, security, or significance, we have failed to understand that we are
saved (accepted, secure, and significant) by grace alone and by faith alone in
Christ alone.   If we think we need more than Jesus in this
life, we are in essence rejecting the gospel and seeking to build or earn our
acceptance, security, and significance through our performance or in the things
of this world.  If we feel we need something
more, we have failed to know Jesus, what has been done for us, and who we are
in Christ. 

Now don’t get
me wrong, I completely sympathize with those who “don’t get this”. Because of
the world system of what we grew up in, we have been trained to believe that “religion”
is a small part of life – but our relationship with God is actually supposed to
be the most important thing about us because the Lord is the author and maker
of all things, of all truth and sets the conditions for eternity – knowing Him
and having peace with Him is the only means to true acceptance, security, and
significance.  

But the good
news is that we can renew our minds and develop a deeper relationship with the
Lord and His word, that will show us that we have all we need in Christ – that because
of our relationship with Jesus, alone, we are accepted, significant, and secure
and there is nothing else out there that we can add to it that would increase
those attributes or feelings in our lives.   

So seek the Lord
and His presence and truth and start believing the truth that Jesus is all you
need for acceptance, security, and significance.

——————————————————————————————-

Today’s
Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By
John G. Kruis.

(
While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick
google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late
author’s work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )

This
morning’s meditation verses come from the section on Adultery:

Exodus 20:14 (NIV2011)
¹⁴  “You shall not commit
adultery.

Today’s verse falls under
the 15^th point of our counseling reference guide resource’s section
on adultery, 16. “Keep the seventh commandment. ”   

Our resource points out
how the matter of adultery is very clear according to God’s word.  There are no “fifty shades of gray” here.
There are no conditions or extenuating circumstances to ponder. God’s word (written
in stone – on tablets of stone by the “finger of God” itself) tells us that we “shall
not commit adultery.”   

As people who wish to do
God’s will, we are to flee sexual immorality in general and adultery
specifically.   So don’t dream about some
explicit affair with your neighbor’s spouse, instead keep your life simple and
free of the sin of adultery, by obeying God’s commandment that says: You shall
not commit adultery.  Enough said.

——————————————————————–

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  The Holy Spirit By A.W. Pink.

As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage you all to purchase A.W. Pink’s books for your own
private study and to support his work.  This resource is available online
for $0.99 (https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Spirit-Arthur-Pink-Collection-ebook/dp/B008CM5292/ref=sr_1_3?crid=AHKAQOM39CTN&keywords=a.w.+pink+the+holy+spirit&qid=1684376225&sprefix=a.w.+pink+the+holy+spirit+%2Caps%2C96&sr=8-3) 

A.W. Pink’s The Holy Spirit

14 – The Spirit Comforting

Several Sequential Steps

The saving work of the Spirit in the heart of God’s elect is
a gradual and progressive one, conducting the soul step by step in the due
method and order of the Gospel to Christ. Where there is no self-condemnation
and humiliation there can be no saving faith in the Lord Jesus: “Ye repented
not afterward, that ye might believe
Him” (Matthew 21:32) was His own express affirmation. It is the burdensome
sense of sin which prepares the soul for the Savior: “Come unto Me all ye that
labors and are heavy laden” (Matthew
11:28). Without conviction there can be no contrition and compunction: he that
sees not his wickedness and guilt never mourns for it; he that feels not his
filthiness and wretchedness never bewails it.

Never was there one
tear of true repentance seen to drop from the eye of an unconvicted sinner.
Equally true is it that without illumination there can be no conviction, for
what is conviction but the application to the heart and conscience of the light
which the Spirit has communicated to the mind and understanding: Acts 2:37. So,
likewise, there can be no effectual illumination until there has been a Divine
quickening, for a dead soul can neither see nor feel in a spiritual manner. In
this order, then, the Spirit draws souls to Christ: He brings them from death
unto life, shines into their minds, applies the light to their consciences by
effectual conviction, wounds and breaks their hearts for sin in compunction,
and then moves the will to embrace Christ in the way of faith for salvation.

These several steps
are more distinctly discerned in some Christians than in others. They are more
clearly to be traced in the adult
convert, than in those who are brought to Christ in their youth. So, too, they
are more easily perceived in such as are drawn to Him out of a state of profaneness than those who had the
advantages of a pious education. Yet in them, too, after conversion, the
exercises of their hearts—following a period of declension and
backsliding—correspond thereto. But in
this order the work of the Spirit is carried on, ordinarily, in all—however
it may differ in point of clearness in the one and in the other. God is a God
of order both in nature and in grace, though He be tied down to no hard and
fast rules.^[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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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 Ask Seek Knock blog (https://tammylynask.blogspot.com/ ),  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)

For those who require the assistance of a Deeper
Walk International Prayer Minister to experience healing or your freedom in
Christ, I highly recommend Christy Edge’s Life on the Edge Freedom Prayer
Ministry. You can schedule a session by going to : https://cedge216.wixsite.com/life-on-the-edge     

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Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship