Refining Our Faith, Finding Our Freedom – Purity 1140

Refining Our Faith, Finding Our Freedom – Purity 1140

Purity 1140 09/06/2023 Purity 1140 Podcast

Purity 1140 on YouTube: 

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a roaring mountain of a bonfire
comes to us from Tara Becker who shared this scene from her visit to the
Country Roads Campground, on Peaceful Lane, in Gilboa NY on social media on
Labor Day.  

Well, It’s Wednesday and I thought that the “campfire”
in Tara’s photo had enough of a peak on it to visually represent our arrival at
another “hump day” and that its heat was a good analogy for the “crucible of
change” that can be experienced when we decide to trust the Lord to help and
change us on the path of Christian Discipleship.  

In an Old Testament passage that points to the crucifixion
of Christ, the prophet Zechariah speaks about how God’s people will be refined
by fire.   

Zechariah 13:7-9 (ESV) says
⁷  … “Strike the shepherd, and
the sheep will be scattered; I will turn my hand against the little ones.
⁸  In the whole land, declares
the LORD, two thirds shall be cut
off and perish, and one third shall be left alive.
⁹  And I will put this third
into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is
tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They
are my people’; and they will say, ‘The LORD
is my God.’”

Likewise, the Apostle Peter encourages
us to endure the fire of trials that will prove the genuineness of our faith
in.

1 Peter 1:6-7 (ESV) where He wrote how we can rejoice
over being born again because of our faith and endure because of it.
⁶  In this you rejoice, though
now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,
⁷  so that the tested
genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is
tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the
revelation of Jesus Christ.

So if we put our faith in The Shepherd
and become God’s people, are born again through faith in Jesus, we will be
called to repentance may feel the heat of the transition from our old life to
the new life we have in Christ.   

People will reject us for our faith but beyond
the losses of relationship and persecution we may suffer, the real heat may
come from leaving the shadows of our former darkness and walking into the
refining fire of God’s magnificent light.  

Tonight I host another meeting of the
Celebrate Freedom Growth Group at Starpoint Church and while you may think that
I am just being poetic about the refining fires of repentance, I can assure you
that the pressure and heat of surrendering your hurts, habits, and hangups to
God for healing and transformation is not for the faint of heart.  

We have people who were moved in to register
for our group who have never shown up.  Others
who previously confessed the need to be their need to be in a group of
Christians to support them in their recoveries have gone AWOL. Facing the heat
of trying to change our lives is not easy and it will cause some to never show
up and others to leave before God’s refining work can be completed.

So while I am encouraged by the people
who keep coming back to our meetings and by the new registrations that we have
had in the last few days, I still pray for the Lord to protect and guide them
to find their way to our meeting each week because I know too well how much
pressure and heat you can be under when you turn from your worldly ways to follow
the Lord into purity and healing.  

But I also know the God who protected Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3, when they were willing to face certain death
in a fiery furnace rather than to worship their pagan king’s golden idol.  When Nebuchadnezzar threaten to throw them in
the fiery furnace and questioned what god could possibly save them. They
responded by saying:

Daniel 3:17-18 (ESV)
¹⁷  If this be so, our God
whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will
deliver us out of your hand, O king.
¹⁸  But if not, be it known to
you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that
you have set up.”

Did you catch that? “if not” – meaning even if God
doesn’t save us – and we die – we will not serve your gods!  

That’s genuine faith! The faith proven
in the “heat of the moment”.  The faith
that is steadfast in the face of death and free of the conditions of positive
outcomes. Come what may, I will follow the Lord!

So they were willing to die because they
knew the Lord and would either be saved on earth or would see Him in heaven.  And to demonstrate that their faith was true,
and their God was the One TRUE GOD, the Lord went into the fire with them, and
they were not consumed. There was another in the fire who gave them the courage,
strength, and protection they needed in their “fiery trial” because they were
faithful.  

And likewise, when we enter into
recovery and repentance to actually live out our Christian faith. The Lord is
with us in “the fire” and will give us
the courage, strength, protection, and guidance we need to overcome the fiery
trial of leaving our hurts, habits, and hang-ups behind to experience the
victory and freedom that the Lord has for us on the other side of our
trials.   

They say if you can’t stand the heat get
out of the kitchen, but I say that if you are walking and talking with God
there is no amount of heat or fiery trial that He can’t see you through.  So brace yourself for another hot one today as
the forecast is in the 90’s in my neck of the woods again but keep your cool by
reminding yourself that the Lord is with you, and He will never or forsake you
and He will be right there with you as you walk through the refining fires of
trials and tribulations to test the genuineness of your faith and just how good
God can be.

——————————————————————————————–

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

1 Corinthians 6:11 (ESV)
¹¹  And such were some of you.
But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Today’s
verses fall under the twelfth point of our counseling reference guide
resource’s section on Alcohol & Drug Abuse.

 12. One can be saved from drunkenness and
set free.

Today’s verse follows
verses 9 & 10 which we shared yesterday that told us drunkards will not
inherit the kingdom of God. However today’s verse tells us a different story. It
tells us that even though we may have been a drunkard or guilty of the other
sins listed in verses 9 &10, we as Christian are not expected to stay that
way.  

If drunks don’t make it to
heaven, how can I be saved?  You take
your faith in booze and put it squarely into Jesus Christ and abandon it. You
repent and you stop drinking!

“Such
were some of you.”  Tells us that some of
the saints in Paul’s days were guilty of all those sins, but after coming to
faith in Jesus Christ, they repented and were “washed, … sanctified, … (and) justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”  They
were set free from the sins of the flesh that had defined their lives and now
they were no longer known for their sins, they were known for their faith and purified
lifestyles that they were able to live out because of the Lord’s help that they
received when they put their faith in Jesus.  

The reason I do the blog and
podcast is because I never actually knew that it was really possible to be set
free.  My drunkenness was part of my
identity for most of my life. I was a “drinker”.  I drank and in spite of the negative
consequences I suffered. I was never going to change because “that was who I
was”.   But God made me a new creation
through my faith in Jesus, and after that happened, I no longer felt right
living in my former darkness, and rather than stay there I obeyed the Lord’s
call to repentance to experience the new life He had already given me.   It was a fiery trial at first, but the Lord
was with me, and He has continued to be with me as I have kept on following Him
in repentance. 

Alcohol, drugs, and sex
addiction have been defeated and now I am currently walking in 18 days of victory
over my food addiction. Today’s official weigh-in is 227.4 pounds down from
238.9, and I’m going to keep leaning on the Lord to keep that victory streak alive
and growing.  

With the Lord, we can be saved from drunkenness, drugs, sex
immorality, and even food addiction, but we have to believe it and lean on the
Lord’s strength and guidance to experience it.  
But when we keep walking and talking with God we will see that we have
been wash, sanctified, justified, and set free.

——————————————————————–

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

23 – The Spirit Witnessing

Doubting
and Professing Christians

But it is insisted that Scripture forbids all
doubting: “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” (Matthew
14:31). Yes, but Christ was not there
blaming Peter for doubting his spiritual state,
but for fearing he would be drowned. Yet Christ “upbraided them with their
unbelief’ (Mark 16:14): true, for not believing He was risen from the dead—not
for calling into question their regeneration! But Abraham is commended because”
against hope (all appearances) he “believed in hope” (Rom. 4:18): yes, and that
was that he should have a son!—how is that relevant to what we are now
discussing? But “we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7): yes, the conduct
of the Apostles was governed by a realization of that which is to come (see v.
11). But “whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23): but this is nothing
to the purpose; if a man does not believe it is right to do some act, and yet
ventures to do it, he sins.

Let us define more
closely the point now under discussion. We may state it thus: Does God require
anyone to believe he has been born again when he has no clear evidence that such is the case? Surely
the question answers itself: the God of Truth never asks anyone to believe a
lie. If my sins have not been
pardoned, then the more firmly convinced I am that they have been, the worse for me; and very ready is Satan to second me
in my self-deception! The Devil would have me assured that all is well with me,
without a diligent search and
thorough examination for sufficient evidence
that I am a new creature in Christ. O how many he is deceiving by making them
believe it is wrong to challenge their profession and put their hearts to a
real trial!

True, it is a sin for a real Christian so to live
that his evidences of regeneration are not clear; but it is no sin for him to
be honest and impartial, or to doubt when, in fact, his evidences are not clear. It is sin to darken my
evidences, but it is no sin to discover that they are darkened. It is a sin for a man, by rioting and drunkenness, to
make himself ill; but it is no sin to
feel he is sick, if there be grounds for it, to doubt if he will survive
his sickness. Our sins bring upon us inward
calamities as well as outward, but these are chastisements rather than sins. It
is the Christian’s sin which lays the foundation for doubts, which occasions
them; yet those doubtings are not themselves sins.

But it will be said,
Believers are exhorted to “hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the
hope firm unto the end” (Heb. 3:6) and that “we are made partakers of Christ,
if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end” (v. 14). Yes,
but that “confidence” is that Jesus
is the Christ, together with a true faith in Him, as is clear from the whole
context there. Nothing is more absurd than to say that professing Christians
are made partakers of Christ by holding fast the confidence that they are saved, for that is what
many a deceived soul does, and does
to the very end (Matthew 7:22). There can be no well-grounded confidence unless
it rests upon clear evidence or reliable testimony. And for that, there must be not only “the answer
of a good conscience” (1 Pet. 3:21), but the confirmatory witness of the
Spirit.^[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 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     

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Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship