Pressing on – Surrendering Body and Mind to Freedom in
Christ– Statements of Truth – 8 – Purity
1132
Purity 1132 08/28/2023 Purity 1132 Podcast
Purity 1132 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo a rainbow over the farmland just off
of Waite Rd comes to us from yours truly as I captured this scene after making
the decision to press on through a short but significant rain shower while out
walking my canine pal, Harley, this past Saturday. I had a long day of forced overtime work on
Saturday and after dinner took the dog for a walk when we were about halfway down
our normal route when the clouds decided to open with what threatened to be a
torrential downpour. While I would normally, turn tail and run back the way I
came in such conditions, there was a partial rainbow on display and something
told me to keep going regardless of the rain and I’m glad I followed my
intuition to press on because by the time we reached our normal turn around
point not only did the rain stop and the partial rainbow develop into a full
rainbow but the sun also emerged beneath the clouds and blasted us with its
shining light and heat to dry us off and cause us to wonder if we had indeed
just moments before get covered in rain.
It was an absolutely magical moment, and I am sharing the panoramic shot
of the full scene on the blog today for those who are curious to get a glimpse
of the full scene that I found myself in.
But one thing even the panoramic shot won’t show
you, is that the presence of the Lord was with me. That “still quiet voice” in my mind that told
me to keep going after the rain started to fall, oh that was the Lord and for
whatever reason He invited me to go beyond what I would normally do to follow
Him and there was a magnificent blessing just down the road for me to
experience. But if I didn’t trust that intuition and keep going I would have
never experienced it.
Similarly, in our walks of life, we will encounter
trials, struggles, doubts, and negative circumstances when we decide to follow
the Lord, especially when we decide to repent or be free of our hurts, habits,
and hang-ups. In recovery, we will come
to a part of our journey where our minds, hearts, bodies, or circumstances will
tell us that the going has gotten just too tough, and it would be best to just
give up the hope of being set free. The enemy will tempt us that we are just
fine the way we are or that we don’t have what it takes to be free of our struggle
and it’s just best to quietly go back to our old ways, perhaps with a little more
moderation. The enemy will bargain a
limited peace and entice you with “having the best of both worlds” – a little
godliness and a little worldliness – you are only human after all. He will offer
an easy end of your pain, and the things you are used to, as give up this “crazy
dream” to be free.
The secular world has now redefined recovery to
include periodic relapses, safe injection sites, and substitutionary “medications”
including marijuana and opiates replacements (that people sometimes sell because they can
get you high, just not as high as heroin, really? Yup.) for the “treatment” of
addictions, the Lord calls us to turn from darkness to His light and pursue
purity. Don’t get me wrong, if you need
medications as an alternative to the chains that bind, by all means, use them
to stabilize. But after you get stable, go back to the Lord and ask Him if He
can lead you to more freedom.
Long before any of the current medications were
available, addicts throughout the history of Christendom have found the
strength to overcome their addictions when they relied on the Lord to give them
the strength to endure on the hard road of freedom. As one of them, I can tell you that you just
have to keep going, one day at a time, one step at a time, with the Lord until
you get there. That’s the truth.
But beyond standard recovery, the enemy will also attempt
to keep us locked in fear and in inaction. He will tell us that we don’t know enough to
share the gospel or to serve in ministry.
That’s a lie too. This morning I woke to discover that Michael
Thomas, a former student of one of the Freedom in Christ courses I facilitated
online for Freedom in Christ Ministries reached out via email to let me know
that the benefits of going through the Steps to Freedom are still playing out
in his life over a year later. Michael
wrote:
“MT, I
was able to speak to a group of about 40 people at church today about our
ministry with Love Life to help unborn children. This would not have happened
if not for the Freedom in Christ Bible study discipleship course we did. Before
Freedom in Christ the enemy had me 100% convinced that I could never speak to a
group that size or ever lead a Bible study. I also am leading a Bible study on
Thursday nights.”
Michael found his freedom in Christ and now it
has led him to boldly step out and serve the kingdom of God. The enemy’s number one lie is that “you can’t
do it” or “that’s impossible” but Jesus says that you can because all things
are possible with God.
That’s the truth and when you test it by
walking it out, you discover that you are really a new creation in Christ. You
just have to present yourself to God for His purposes and He will lead you into
your new life of freedom, purpose, peace, hope, and joy!
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 4 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:
8. I choose to present my body to God as a living and
holy sacrifice and the members of my body as instruments of righteousness. I
choose to renew my mind by the living word of God in order that I may prove
that the will of God is good, acceptable, and perfect. I put off the old self
with its evil practices and put on the new self. I declare myself to be a new
creation in Christ.
And the Bible verses listed with this statement
are:
Romans 6:13 (NKJV)
13 And do not present your
members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves
to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of
righteousness to God.
Romans 12:1-2 (NKJV)
1 I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And do not be conformed to
this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove
what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
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.
Colossians 3:9-10 (NKJV)
9 Do not lie to one another,
since you have put off the old man with his deeds,
10 and have put on the new man
who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,
Today’s statement of truth highlights
the fact that we are new creations in Christ, but it also emphasizes the
reality that we must choose to surrender our bodies and minds to the process of
putting off our old ways to be the people that God created us to be.
The language here makes it clear that
our faith involves more than just our “beliefs”. We not only have to believe in Jesus Christ
we have to renew our minds with the word of God and put our bodies into action
to pursue what God’s good, acceptable, and perfect will is.
Our minds and bodies must follow the Lord’s
call to be more like Jesus.
To renew our minds we have to know what
we believe, why we believe it, and to make the decision to live by it.
So we have to place our bodies in front
of a Bible, a Pastor’s sermon, or Christian video or podcast to receive what
the word of God says. We then have to
reflect on what is taught with our minds to understand it and to go to the Lord
in prayer to ask for His help in applying it to our lives.
We have to take our bodies away from the
sins of our past, turn our eyes and minds away from our former darkness and
instead turn to the light of a good and righteous life that God calls us to
live.
To put off the old man, the new man has
to DO SOMETHING. We need to replace the
old ways with God’s way. We should fill
the time we normally dedicate to our worldly ways with new pursuits like Reading
and studying the Bible, Praying, Answering the Lord’s call to do good works, practicing
gratitude and appreciation, examining and dismantling our old patterns, fellowshipping
with other Christians, evangelizing the lost, and making disciples.
When we live according to who we are in
Christ, when we walk in the Spirit, we will experience our new life in Christ
and find our purpose in God’s kingdom. So
agree with this statement of truth and choose to surrender your body and mind
to finding God’s perfect will for 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 verse comes from the section on Alcohol & Drug Abuse
Proverbs 21:17 (ESV)
17 Whoever loves pleasure
will be a poor man; he who loves wine and oil will not be rich.
Today’s
verses fall under the fourth point of our counseling reference guide resource’s
section on Alcohol
& Drug Abuse.
4. Don’t love wine.
Today’s verse tries to
scare us straight by sharing the wisdom that the pursuit of pleasure and the
love of wine will not enrich our lives and could make us poor.
One of the lies of the
enemy that comes from the original fall of man is that if we don’t partake in
certain things (that God just happens to forbid or discourage us from pursuing
in illegitimate ways) we will be missing out. So the enemy tempts us to pursue drunken
revelries and the sexual sin that it so often leads to.
Hey, I speak from experience.
The only reason I wanted to “go out” on the party scene was for the possibility
of “fast times” with some “stranger in the night”. In contemplating those possible fast times, I’m
ashamed to admit that I actually used to say: “I may not nail anyone, but I’m
sure to get hammered”, meaning I might not have sex but there was I was sure to
get drunk. Forgive me Lord. Talk about a “poor” view of life – that people
were just things to be used and alcohol was to be drunk to the point of
oblivion. And as much as those in the party
life posture and pretend that their lives are exciting, there is a lot of pain,
loneliness, and desperation in those bar rooms.
Beyond the spiritual
poorness of that lifestyle, revelers and
drunkards often spend their last dollars on booze. Many a time I begged money off of friends to “buy
me a round”.
So the word of God is
true. Those who love wine run the risk
of being financially poor because they spend every cent on a nightly basis
chasing good times and when they live in it their lives are poor reflections of
what the Lord would have them do.
So don’t love wine, Love
the Lord and pursue the rich life He has for you.
——————————————————————–
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
22 – The Spirit Assuring
We do not propose to treat of the Spirit assuring in a
topical and general way, but to confine ourselves to His inspiring the
Christian with a sense of his adoption into the family of God, limiting
ourselves unto two or three particular passages which treat specifically
thereof. In Romans 8:15 we read, “For ye have not received the spirit of
bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we
cry, Abba, Father.” The eighth chapter of Romans has ever been a great favorite
with the Lord’s people, for it contains a wide variety of cordials for their
encouragement and strengthening in the running of that heavenly race which is
marked out and set before them in the Word of God. The Apostle is there writing
to such as have been brought, by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, to
know and believe on the Lord Jesus, and who by their communion with Him are led
to set their affection upon things above.
First, let us observe
that Romans 8:15 opens with the word “For,” which not only suggests a close
connection with that which precedes, but intimates that a proof is now
furnished of what had just been affirmed. In the verse, the Apostle had said,
“Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the
flesh:” the “Therefore” being a conclusion drawn from all the considerations
set forth in verses 1–11. Next, the Apostle had declared, “For if ye live after
the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of
the body, ye shall live” (v. 13); which means, first, ye shall continue to “live” a life of grace now; and second, this shall be
followed by a “life” of glory
throughout eternity. Then the Apostle added, “For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (v. 14), which is a confirmation and
amplification of verse 13: none live a life of grace save those who are “led by
the Spirit of God”—are inwardly controlled and outwardly governed by Him: for
they only are “the sons of God.”[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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on Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartradio, and
Audible.com.
These teachings are also available on the
MT4Christ247 YouTube 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
[1]
Arthur Walkington Pink, The Holy Spirit
(Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, n.d.).
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