The Virtuous Cycle – Hearing and Doing God’s Word –
Self-Deception Series 17 – Purity 1106
Purity 1106 07/28/2023 Purity 1106 Podcast
Purity 1106 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s work of art comes to us from British artist,
Sebastian Pether who painted this moonlit “River Scene” back in 1840. A father of nine children, Pether’s life seems
to be that of overeducated but underpaid artist who had a fair share of tragedy
in his life, losing their children to consumption before his death at the
relatively young age of 51, due to an inflammatory
attack. But although he may not have
prospered financially during his life, he has left behind a legacy of artistic
beauty consisting of “firelights, moonlights, and sunsets”. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebastian_Pether).
Well, It’s Friday, Thank You God, and as the sun sets
on another work week and I contemplate that today’s artist was the same age as
me when he died, I am thankful for the life God has given me and how He has
guided me to discover how beautiful my life has been despite some extended
periods spent in darkness. Just like Pether’s painting reveals how soft
moonlight can highlight the beauty of a landscape, I have discovered that when
you follow the Lord, His Light will shine even in the darkest hours of your
life to reveal the beauty even in the midst of your pain.
So I am rejoicing today because I am still alive, have
found my freedom in Christ and will find myself a little “free-er” at the end
of the workday because I am on vacation for two weeks! So praise the Lord for
all that He has done and will do! Amen? Amen!
As I often recall my journey of faith over the last
13 years, I am continually reminded of the fact that I progressively learned
more and more about the Lord from His word and developed the discipline of “taking
every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” when I realized that:
I was a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17)
And there really was “no condemnation for those in
Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1).
It took some renewing of the mind because of God’s
word, but I came to understand that the things I thought about myself – that I
was evil, cold-hearted, no good, bad, and maybe a little insane weren’t true
about me anymore. I had finally heard
the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and made Him my Lord and Savoir and
when you do that you not only receive the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit,
but you also receive the righteousness of Christ (2 Cor 5:21) and a sound mind
to boot (2 Tim 1:7)!
I was made a brand-new creation by putting my faith
in Jesus and what was true about me in the past was no longer true about me
now. I was no longer dead in my trespasses and sins, and I was no longer a
slave to sin but in order to experience my freedom in Christ – I had to believe
it and live it. And so the process of believing
the truth about who I am in Christ and renouncing the lies of the world, the
flesh, and the devil began, and it changed the way I thought, the way I felt,
and the way I lived. I had spent my
life believing the lies of the world and finally the truth of God was setting
me free, and it continues to transform my life and give me peace and joy!
While I know I have been blessed, I also want to stress
that I am “nothing special”. All I did was to believe the Lord and follow Him
and I encourage others to do the same by putting your faith in Jesus and
starting that process of renouncing the lies you have believed that has left
you chained to sin and kept you from the peace that God has for you.
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 first of the “Ways to Deceive Yourself”:
1. Hearing God’s Word but not doing what it says.
The scripture reference for this point is:
James 1:22 (NLT2)
22 But don’t just listen to
God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling
yourselves.
Or as those familiar with the NKJV know:
James 1:22 (NKJV)
22 But be doers of the word,
and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
As we move into the section of the Steps to Freedom of
Christ that really highlights self-deception,
I marvel over how common and accepted this first way we deceive ourselves
is.
When I lead people through the Steps, I refer to this
one as the “free space on the Bingo card”
in the Steps to Freedom in Christ, because EVERYONE, if they are honest,
has to admit that they hear God’s word but don’t do what it says.
While this may seem like a “no brainer” – that of
course – we all sin and fall short of the glory of God – and that none of us always
does what God’s word says, all the time, perfectly, the big problem that
plagues the body of Christ is just how complacent Christians can be regarding
the fact that they hear the word of God and don’t do what it says. Although obedience to God’s word can be
difficult for sure, it doesn’t mean that we are to throw our hands in the air
and declare that “it’s impossible” and choose to stop trying to grow in our
sanctification.
While we will never reach sinless perfection, it doesn’t
mean that we can’t make progress becoming more and more life Jesus in our
character. God has given us the power over sin, but we have to exercise it. God
has given us the ability to do good works, pray, and renew our minds with His
word, but we have to choose to and actually practice those things. When we believe in the Lord and follow Him
obediently we begin the ”virtuous cycle” which is centered on truth and
surrounded with motivation, encouragement, confirmation, and good works.
We first believe the truth. That motivates us to do good works (like acts
of kindness or service, or going to church, or reading our Bibles or praying)
and this confirms to our hearts and minds that “Yes, I really am a Christian”
and that confirmation encourages us to do learn more of God’s truth, to believe
it and stand in it, which in turn motivates us to continue into more “good works”
and to continue this life giving process of “Living in the Spirit”. – which all amounts to “Hearing God’s word
and doing what it says!”
So hear that word, and do what it says, continually and
progressively until you realize that you are living in the “virtuous cycle” that
produces the fruit of the Spirit in your life.
——————————————————————————————–
For
those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide,
I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .
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 Affliction, Discipline,
Chastisement, & Trials.
Psalm 119:67-68 (NASB)
67 Before I was afflicted I
went astray, But now I keep Your word.
68 You are good and do good;
Teach me Your statutes.
Today’s
verses fall under the fifth point of our counseling reference guide resource’s
section on Affliction,
Discipline, Chastisement, & Trials
5. “The psalmist was thankful for
affliction for it taught him to keep God’s precepts.
Today’s verses are
actually the first of a trio of verse couplets from psalm 119 that our
reference guide uses to illustrate this point but instead of sharing them all
at once we will present them individually and see what the Lord leads us to
reflect or meditate on over the next three days.
Today’s verses testify
that hard times – affliction – can really convict our hearts of how we have
gone astray and create an opportunity to see how the Lord is good and to
produce a desire to repent and learn from Him.
I love Pastor Bob Costello’s
testimony of when he first came to Christ.
His wife was a Christian, but Bob was still on the fence and pretty
worldly but because He loved his wife and he agreed in principle that faith was
a good thing, he begrudgingly agreed to go to a Christian retreat. At the
retreat, Bob was directed to go into a room and to pray to God and to make a list
of all the “good things” and all the “bad things” he had done in life. Bob was able to make a long list of “bad
things” he did in his life but when it came time to do the “good list” he couldn’t
think of anything he did past the age of 13 that was particularly good. Bob had a hard
life growing up in the streets of the Bronx and had learned to fight to survive
and to get what he wanted but in that room he recalled how he hadn’t always
been like that. When he was young he was
a “good kid” and as he struggled to think of anything good in his life, he lamented
in his heart over how he had become “such a bum”. Saddened by the loss of his innocence and the
state of his life, Bob asked for the Lord’s forgiveness, surrendered to the Lordship
of Christ, and asked God to help him to be “good again”. The Lord’s presence filled that room and Bob
was overcome by the joy of His salvation.
And although Bob had secretly planned to cut out early on that retreat
before going in that room, afterwards He stayed and told everyone about how He
met God.
When Bob went back to work
on Monday, his co-workers speculated that Bob must have had a wild weekend
since he had given up working the overtime that had been available, but Bob
repeated his confession of faith and told those who asked how he had “met God”.
Later in the afternoon one
of his work buddies came up to Bob and asked how he was feeling. Bob reported that he was feeling great! To
which his friend said, “Oh good because there was a rumor going around the shop
that you had a mental breakdown!” To which Bob explained how He had come to
faith and that everyone should have what happened to him, happen to them.
So yes, an honest
examination of our lives of affliction can show us that God is good and lead us
to surrender to Him and to experience the life He has for us and to continually
seek to learn His wisdom.
——————————————————————–
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
16 – The Spirit Working Faith
What Is
“Saving Faith”
It is a great mistake to define Scriptural
terms according to the narrow scope and meaning which they have in common
speech. In ordinary conversation, “faith” signifies credence or the assent of
the mind unto some testimony. But in God’s Word, so far from faith—saving
faith, we mean—being merely a natural act of the mind, it includes the
concurrence of the will and an action of the affections: it is “with the
heart,” and not with the head, “that man believeth unto righteousness” (Rom.
10:10). Saving faith is a cordial approbation of Christ, an acceptance of Him
in His entire character as Prophet, Priest, and King; it is entering into
covenant with Him, receiving Him as Lord and Savior. When this is understood,
it will appear to be a fit instrument for completing our union with Christ, for
the union is thus formed by mutual
consent.
Were people to
perceive more clearly the implications and the precise character of saving
faith, they would be the more readily convinced that it is “the gift of God,”
an effect or fruit of the Spirit’s operations on the heart. Saving faith is a
coming to Christ, and coming to Christ necessarily presupposes a forsaking of
all that stands opposed to Him. It has been rightly said that, “true faith
includes in it the renunciation of the flesh as well as the reception of the
Savior; true faith admires the precepts of holiness as well as the glory of the
Savior” (J. H. Thornwell, 1850). Not until these facts are recognized, enlarged
upon, and emphasized by present-day preachers is there any real likelihood of
the effectual exposure of the utter inadequacy of that natural “faith” which is all that thousands of empty professors
possess.[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
“The views, opinions, and commentary of this
publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to
reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries,
or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication,
and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the
author may represent.”
Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship
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