Simple Things Mean the Most – Purity 1153

Simple Things Mean the Most  – Purity 1153

Purity 1153 09/22/2023 Purity 1153 Podcast

Purity 1153 on YouTube: 

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a hazy multicolored sunset sky over
the green fields near Holmquest Farms comes to us from Dana Filli and Rich
Tomlin who shared this simply heavenly scene on social media yesterday stating “When
you work hard and hurry home and have a free night.. we hop on the quad to the
farm.. it’s the simple things that mean the most.”  

Well, It’s Friday and I couldn’t agree more with our
friends’ sentiment that the simple things do mean the most. And today I am
giving thanks for the simple things that I have that mean so much. 

In the forefront of my mind, I am thankful for my
wife, TammyLyn, and her simple beauty and faith.  I was fully prepared to go full “monk” after
my divorce and walk this world alone but my prayers for a faithful Christian
wife were answered through TammyLyn.  TammyLyn
just got out of some major dental surgery yesterday afternoon and has been in a
lot of pain because of her condition and my schedule I haven’t been able to
speak to her and am looking forward to the end of the workday today so I can
head north to our countryside home to be in her presence and to comfort her in
whatever way I can.  

TammyLyn’s condition has also reminded me of the “simple
thing” that many of us can take for granted – being healthy and pain-free.   My commitment to slay my food addiction since
August 18^th has me weighing in at 223.6 pounds this week, down from
238.9, and I am feeling great not carrying the extra 15 pounds. While my Body
Mass Index (BMI) is still in the “obesity range”, I am really appreciating my
relatively good health and have a renewed intention to keep moving in the right
direction health-wise. In hindsight, it is somewhat frightening to realize how
unaware and unaffected I was about how I was sabotaging my own efforts through
mindless eating.   And in light of
TammyLyn’s dental problems, I have been sure to brush my teeth and use my water
pick each morning. You shouldn’t take the “simple thing” of your faith for
granted and  be diligent in being a good
steward to your body.   It is the temple
of the Holy Spirit after all and we are to make it a living sacrifice to the Lord,
so let’s make it a healthy one!

And of course, I am thankful for the “simple thing”
of my faith in Christ and all that the Lord has done in my life since the day I
put my faith in Jesus as my Lord and Savior.  
The interior peace and joy that I have from the Lord stay with me because
I abide in Him, literally walking and talking with Him as I go through my days
on the earth.  For those who don’t know
peace or the joy of the Lord, seek Him, spend time getting to know Him through
the Bible and through prayer, and follow His lead for your life.  When you walk in the Spirit, you will be
blessed by the fruit of the Spirit. 

If that wasn’t enough, I am also thankful for all
the people that God has put on my path as I have walked through this life. My
family, my friends, and particularly my brothers and sisters in Christ that have
met along the way since 2010 have blessed me beyond measure. There are too many
to name but this morning in prayer I was reminded of my faithful partners in
ministry, Debbie Deyoe and Scott Salvadore, who led the Celebrate Freedom
Growth Group with me, as I got an “indication” from the Lord to hand over the
reigns of leadership to each of them for the next two weeks.  I don’t know if I got this call because
things have been pretty hectic in my life lately or if the Lord wants to do
something through them in the next two weeks, but I am thankful for my friend’s
faithfulness and feel confident that they will rise to answer the call to lead.  Right guys? Right, Lord?  I guess we will find out, but unless I got my
wires crossed I’m pretty sure that the Lord is calling them into service, not
that they weren’t serving already, lol.

But that reminds me how blessed we are when we can
be vulnerable to ask others for help and to be pretty confident that we will
receive it. The simple thing of being in “community” or “harmony” with your
friends to the point where you can be open, honest, and ask for help is a
blessing that unfortunately few of us have.  

Often when I have led ministries and have met newcomers
and heard their stories of how they were living a double life in the shadows of
darkness, guilt, and shame and how lonely they were in their hurts, habits, and
hangups, I am reminded just how important it can be to have people in your life
that you can be honest with and can receive support from. The simple thing of “not
being alone” is so huge and we should watch ourselves and make sure we don’t
slip into isolation. If you are feeling down, get up and seek the Lord and the
company of the saints, you don’t have to do life alone anymore!

Anyway, this has been a practice in gratitude and I
recommend it as a daily spiritual practice. If we are always giving thanks for
the things we have been blessed with, we will be anchored in the pathway of
peace and abiding in the simple thing of joy.  

So keep walking and talking with God. Give thanks to
the Lord for He is good, and his provision and mercy endure forever.  God bless you all and have a great weekend
doing and enjoying the “simple things” that mean the most.

——————————————————————————————–

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 Anger, Hot Temper.

Genesis 4:3-8 (NIV2011)
³  In the course of time Cain
brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD.
⁴  And Abel also brought an
offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his
offering,
⁵  but on Cain and his
offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was
downcast.
⁶  Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry?
Why is your face downcast?
⁷  If you do what is right,
will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching
at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
⁸  Now Cain said to his
brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain
attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

Today’s
verses fall under the fifth point of our counseling reference guide resource’s
section on Anger,
Hot Temper

 5. Cain’s anger turned into hate and
murder.

Today’s verses tell the
story of the first homicide that was the product of jealousy, failure to heed
the Lord our God, and was committed in the heat of prideful anger.  

In this passage, verse 4
is highlighted because it sets the stage for Cain’s motive. His brother Abel was
looked on with favor, but Cain wasn’t.  While
there is quite a bit of speculation as to why Abel’s offering was favorable
(maybe because it was a blood sacrifice and cost Abel the life of the first
born of his flock?) and Cain’s wasn’t (maybe because it was only something that
the Lord provided?), in the end it doesn’t matter.  Cain’s jealousy and anger was not a justifiable
reason to kill Abel – AND – the Lord specifically tells Cain to just turn that
frown upside down and to just do “what is right” – warning Cain that if he
doesn’t sin will have its way with him.

Rather than being obedient
to the Lord, Cain’s anger led him to murder his brother and to not exactly cower
with guilt and shame when confronted by the Lord about the whereabouts of his
deceased sibling. 

“Am I my brother’s keeper?”
– Seriously Cain? Wow. 

Anyway as tragic as Cain
and Abel’s story is, it provides us with the most basic principles of our faith
– “do what is right according to the Lord” – otherwise sin will rule over you –
and it shows us the dangers of not listening to the Lord and letting our anger move
us to regrettable actions.   

So “do the right thing”
and seek the Lord’s help to let go of feelings of anger to pursue His ways of
peace.

——————————————————————–

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

26 – The Spirit Interceding

If left to himself, the believer would never see (by faith)
the all-wise hand of God in his afflictions, still less would his heart ever
honestly say concerning them, “Thy
will be done.” If left to himself, he would never seek grace to patiently
endure the trial, still less would he hope that afterwards it would produce the
peaceable fruit of righteousness (Heb. 12:11). If left to himself, he would
continue to chafe and kick like “a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke” (Jer.
31:18) and would curse the day of his birth (Job 3:1). If left to himself, he
would have no faith that his sufferings were among the “all things” working
together for his ultimate good, still less would he “glory in his infirmity
that the power of Christ might rest upon him” (2 Cor. 12:9). No, dear reader,
such holy exercises of heart are not the product of poor fallen human nature;
instead, they are nothing less than the immediate, gracious, and lovely fruits
of the Holy Spirit—brought forth amid such uncongenial soil. What a marvel!

“Likewise the Spirit
also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we
ought” (Rom. 8:26). At no one point is the Christian made more conscious of his
“infirmities” than in connection with his prayer-life. The effects of indwelling
corruption are such that often prayer becomes an irksome task, rather than the
felt delight of a precious privilege; and strive as he may, he cannot always
overcome this fearful spirit. Even when he endeavors to pray, he is handicapped by wanderings of mind, coldness of
heart, the intrusion of carnal cares; while he is painfully conscious of the unreality of his petitions and unfelt confessions. How cold are the
effusions of our hearts in secret devotions, how feeble our supplications, how
little solemnity of mind, brokenness of heart. How often the prayer exercises
of our souls seem a mass of confusion and contradiction.

“But the Spirit
itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Rom.
8:26). It is particularly the help which the blessed Comforter gives the
Christian in his prayer-life, in the counteracting of his “infirmities,” which
is now to engage our attention. In Zechariah 12:10 He is emphatically styled
“The Spirit of grace and of supplications,”
for He is the Author of every spiritual desire, every holy aspiration, every
outgoing of the heart after God. Prayer has rightly been termed “the breathing
of the newborn soul,” yet we must carefully bear in mind that its respiration
is wholly determined by the stirrings of the Holy Spirit within us. As the
Person, work and intercession of Christ are the foundation of all our
confidence in approaching the Father, so every spiritual exercise in prayer is
the fruit of the Spirit’s operations and intercession.^[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 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
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reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries,
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and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the
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Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship