Jesus the Messiah Destroying the Works of the Devil – Statements
of Truth – 2 – Purity 1126
Purity 1126 08/21/2023 Purity 1126 Podcast
Purity 1126 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of my right foot and an obstructed
view of the beach at Grafton Lakes State Park from the vantage point of my choice
spot beneath a tree in front of the lifeguard’s station comes to us from yours
truly as I decided to grab some relaxation and some summertime fun immediately following
the 10 am service at Starpoint Church as I realized that there may be few if
any opportunities to do so before Labor Day comes and goes in 2 weeks’ time.
I often give the advice to “DO SOMETHING” to enjoy
our lives, now, and while I am all for acting spontaneously, I also know that
if you don’t plan anything you run the risk of doing nothing with the precious
days of your life and end up regretting the things you didn’t plan for and didn’t
do. So because I was left on my own
yesterday, as my beloved wife was away with her family in Connecticut, I had to
decide what I would do with my one and only day off this past weekend. Before I sat down to my Bible study with the
Cincotti’s, I asked my electronic personal assistant and got the news that the
weather was forecasted to be 83 degrees, I decided I wanted to do something
with my day. While I love my room at
River House, I wanted to take advantage of the weather and go swimming. I decided
to brave social anxiety and go to my church in person and alone and would go swimming
afterwards. I thought about going to
Lake Taghkanic, a lake that I frequented throughout out my youth, but didn’t want
to drive so far. So I asked my friend Google to suggest something and to go
somewhere new but even though it named a few places where I could go swimming,
the information on the new sites I was interested in was inconclusive and
because my time was precious I didn’t want to go to some place and discover
that there was no swimming there after all.
I had only been to Grafton Lakes State Park recreationally once before,
but I recalled having a good experience there last year on a similarly solo
swimming excursion. So after the Bible Study with the Cincotti’s was done I
hurriedly packed my beach stuff into the car and had just enough time to upload
the Bible Study up to YouTube before I had to make my way to the church.
I made it to the church on time, enjoyed the service
and message by Dr Lisa Bermudez, on telling yourself the truth, and got to Grafton’s
beach around noon. I discovered “my spot”
– under a solitary tree on the lawn in front of the lifeguard’s beach house,
was available – set up my chair and blanket and immediately went into the water
to swim. The water was a bit chilly, but
I dived right in and headed to the far reaches of the swimming area to swim
back and forth to the relative solitude there and appreciate the experience of swimming
under blue skies on a pleasant summer day. My joy was palpable as I glided
through the water and just felt the pleasure of swimming. As I alternated between the breaststroke and
back stroke, I just reveled in the experience until I grew a little tired from
the continuous effort of keeping myself afloat.
As I was swimming a duck swam across the lake just beyond the swimming
area and I stopped to appreciate the moment, as my fowl friend seamlessly
progressed past me. I thanked the Lord
for the moment and my life, as I came to the realization that this could be the
last swimming session of the summer of 2023, and I let God know that if this
was the last session for the season, I was okay with it. It was such a simple
yet magnificent moment that I knew that I could store it away in my memory
banks as another good memory to recall the summer of ’23 to give me joy.
I spent the next few hours under “my tree” connecting
with the Lord by appreciating His creation and my life, and by reading Dallas
Willard’s The Spirit of the Disciplines which reminded me that we have to
pursue the Lord and put forth effort in our faith walk to draw closer to God
and to become more and more like Christ. Willard reminded me that anything
worth accomplishing often isn’t easy and may require extended time and effort
to realize, and becoming the person that God created us to be was no different. It was a great couple of hours under that
tree.
The one thing that I realized that I like about Grafton
is that it is free from any memories of my past. Other than my previous visit
last year, I had never been there. I
really like the fact that my experience at Grafton is on the other side of my
freedom in Christ and post-divorce life.
The fact that I have only gone there by myself gave me the sense that
Grafton was “my place” or more accurately “the Lord and my place” because it
has no shadows of the past or people involved. Although there was a fair amount
of people there, and the increasing numbers eventually led me to call it a day,
despite the crowds it was just me and the Lord at the beach. And it was a good day.
The Lord is omnipresent after all so wherever you go,
He is there. But we don’t always realize that, and it leads us to feel we are
alone. Although I was there solo, I didn’t
feel alone because I kept “walking, swimming, and talking” with God, even
though the conversation was confined to my thoughts, for the most part.
God is with us. That’s the truth.
And that brings us to our current series –
Statements of Truth – that springs from the last portion of Step # 2, Deception
Vs. Truth, of the Steps to Freedom in Christ by Dr. Neil Anderson
That step deals with Deception, and because we have
completed the process of examining, confessing, and renouncing all of the ways
we have been deceived. the good doctor prescribes a healthy dose of truth for us:
Anderson introduces the Statements of Truth by
stating:
“For two thousand years Christians have known the
importance of verbally and publicly declaring truth. Read aloud the following
statements of truth, and carefully consider what you are professing. You may
find it helpful to read them aloud every day for at least six weeks, which will
help you renew your mind to the truth.”
So for our current series, we are presenting each of
the remaining 10 Statements of Truth from Step 2 of the Steps to Freedom in
Christ, one at a time, We are declaring them verbally and publicly, because we,
like the Christians who have gone before us over the last two thousand years.
know the importance of doing so.
We are also sharing the statement’s associated Bible
verses and sharing our thoughts about what each Statement of Truth is telling
us, why they are important, and how they apply to our lives as Christians.
So today’s Statement of Truth is:
2. I recognize that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the
word who became flesh and dwelt among us. I believe that He came to destroy the
works of the devil, and that He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a
public display of them, having triumphed over them.
And the Bible verses listed with this statement
are:
John 1:1; 14 (NKJV)
1 In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
14 And the Word became flesh
and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Colossians
2:15 (NKJV)
15 Having disarmed principalities
and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
1
John 3:8 (NKJV)
8 He who sins is of the
devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of
God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
John
1:1 is sort of the Genesis of the New Testament as it speaks of the coming of
Jesus Christ and the fact that He has always been with God, and was God, long
before He became flesh and dwelt among us.
And even though He ascended to Heaven, Jesus still dwells among us, in
spirit and in truth, as He lives in the hearts of all those who put their faith
in Him.
Jesus
is also known as the Word of God and
when we read the scriptures they point to Him and put us into a conversation
with Him as The Word reveals the Truth that Jesus is the Messiah and it
convicts us to become more and more like Him.
There
are some deep spiritual realities going on here – the Trinitarian mystery of
God with the simultaneous interplay between God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy
Spirit – and how the Bible is a Living Word, and that somehow is Jesus too in a
sense.
The
word delivers the good news that Jesus is Lord and has been victorious over the
spiritual forces of darkness!
As
for destroying the works of the devil, I
share
1 John 3:9-10 (NKJV) which says
9 Whoever has been born of
God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he
has been born of God.
10 In this the children of
God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice
righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.
The Apostle John’s words – the word of God – aka Jesus – tell us that those
who sin are of the devil, but Jesus came to destroy the devil’s work and
through His resurrection, man can be born again, born of God, and has been
given the power over sin. Destroying the
work of the devil happens in us as we increasingly turn from our former ways of
darkness and embrace who we are in Christ and decided to walk with Him in the
light of our new lives. So we endeavor
to increasingly turn from our sins and practice righteousness to allow the new
life that Christ gave us to manifest in our lives.
These Statements are True and when we
accept Jesus as the Messiah, make Him our Lord and Savior, we share in His
victory over the devil. So keep walking and
talking with God and believe and receive your part in the victory that has
already been won by following the Lord into the freedom He has given you, in
Christ!
——————————————————————————————–
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 verse comes from the section on Affliction, Discipline,
Chastisement, & Trials.
Acts 16:16-28 (NKJV)
16 Now it happened, as we
went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination
met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling.
17 This girl followed Paul
and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most
High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.”
18 And this she did for many
days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command
you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And he came out that
very hour.
19 But when her masters saw
that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them
into the marketplace to the authorities.
20 And they brought them to
the magistrates, and said, “These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our
city;
21 and they teach customs
which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.”
22 Then the multitude rose up
together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded
them to be beaten with rods.
23 And when they had laid
many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer
to keep them securely.
24 Having received such a
charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the
stocks.
25 But at midnight Paul
and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were
listening to them.
26 Suddenly there was a great
earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately
all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed.
27 And the keeper of the
prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the
prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself.
28 But Paul called with a
loud voice, saying, “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.”
Today’s
verse fall under the twenty-third point of our counseling reference guide
resource’s section on Affliction, Discipline, Chastisement, & Trials
23. Paul and Silas were singing praises to
God while they were suffering severely for the sake of the gospel.
There is a lot going on in
today’s passage of scripture. Our resource highlights verse 25, thus the bold
print, but before that an encounter with a slave girl who is oppressed by a
demon that unrighteous men have manipulated for financial gain. Think of it, these men have used this woman’s
demonically given ability to tell fortunes to earn money!
But Paul demonstrates His
power and authority in Christ by telling the demon to leave and to take the
demonic power to tell fortunes with it.
You would think that Paul
would be commended for setting the woman free of her demon, but you would be
wrong and instead Paul and Silas are stripped and beaten with rods and thrown
into jail!
And wouldn’t think that
being imprisoned and beaten would be cause for celebration but Paul and Silas
count themselves blessed for being persecuted for their faith and instead of
lamenting of all the troubles they’ve seen, they praise the Lord in song, the
original Jailhouse Rock, until the Lord decides to join in with a little shake,
rattle and roll of His own as an earthquake comes that shake the prisons foundations and breaks
the prisoners chains!
The narrative of this passage
continues through verse 34 to tell us that God used this occasion to bring the
jailer and his whole household to put their faith in Jesus!
When we are faithful to do
what the Lord moves us to do, and to praise Him even in times of adversity,
there is no telling what the Lord may do to deliver us and to set the captives
free.
So if you are suffering,
praise the Lord. Our worship is a weapon, and the Lord will use our praises to
bless our hearts, renew our spirits, and just may do something miraculous to
show you just how faithful our God is!
——————————————————————–
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
20 – The Spirit Cleansing
The
Promise
“If ye through the Spirit do mortify the
deeds of the body, ye shall live”
(Rom. 8:13). Here is the encouraging promise set before the sorely-tried
contestant. God will be no man’s debtor: He is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek Him (Heb. 11:6). If, then, by grace, we deny the flesh and
cooperate with the Spirit, if we strive against sin and strive after holiness,
richly shall we be recompensed. To say that Christians are unable to concur
with the Spirit is to deny there is any real difference between the renewed and
those who are dead in sin. It is true that without Christ we can do nothing
(John 15:5), yet it is equally true (though far less frequently quoted) that “I
can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Phil. 4:13).
Mortification and vivification are inseparable: dying to sin and living unto
God are indissolubly connected: the one cannot be without the other. If we
through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, then, but only then, we
shall “live”—live a life of grace and comfort here, and live a life of eternal
glory and bliss hereafter.
Some have a
difficulty here in that Romans 8:13 conditions “life” upon our performance of the duty of mortification. “In the Gospel there
are promises of life upon the condition of our obedience. The promises are not
made to the work, but to the worker, and to the worker not for his work, but
for Christ’s sake according to his work. As for example, promise of life is
made not to the work of mortification, but to
him that mortifieth the flesh, and that not for his mortification, but
because he is in Christ, and his mortification is the token or evidence thereof And therefore it
must be remembered that all promises of the Gospel that mention works include
in them reconciliation with God in Christ” (W. Perkins, 1604). The
conditionality of the promise, then, is neither that of causation or
uncertainty, but of coherence and connection, or means and end. The Highway of
Holiness is the only path that leads to Heaven: “He that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting” (Gal. 6:8).
But let it be pointed
out that the sowing of a field with grain is not accomplished in a few minutes,
it is a lengthy and laborious task, calling for diligence and patience. So it
is with the Christian: mortification is a lifelong
task. A neglected garden is neither easily nor quickly rid of weeds and much
care is required for the cultivation of herbs and flowers. Nor is a
long-neglected heart, with its indwelling corruptions and powerful lusts,
brought into subjection to the Spirit by a few spasmodic efforts and prayers.
It calls for painful and protracted effort, the daily denying of self,
application of the principles of the Cross to our daily walk, earnest
supplication for the Spirit’s help. So “Be
not weary” (Gal. 6:9).
In conclusion let us
seek to meet the objection of the discouraged Christian. “If a true
mortification must be not only a striving against the motions of inward
corruptions, but also the weakening of its roots, then I fear that all my
endeavors have been in vain. Some success I have obtained against the
outbreakings of lust, but still I find the temptation of it as strong as ever.
I perceive no decays in it, but rather does it grow more violent each day.”
Answer, “That is because you are more conscious and take more notice of
corruption than formerly. When the heart is made tender by a long exercise of
mortification, a small temptation troubles it more than a greater one did
formerly. This seeming strengthening of corruption is not a sign that sin is
not dying, but rather an evidence that you are spiritually alive and more
sensible of its motions” (condensed from Ezekiel Hopkins, 1680, to whom we are
indebted for several leading thoughts in the first part of this chapter).[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/@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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