Walk by Faith but Plan for Progress – Purity 1158

Walk by Faith but Plan for Progress – Purity 1158

Purity 1158 09/28/2023 Purity 1158 Podcast

Purity 1158 on YouTube:

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a red rock wall and a winding red
rock pathway with red rock outcroppings in the evergreen forest beyond comes to
us from Nik Harrang who shared this scene on social media while he was at a strategic
planning meeting for Deeper Walk International back on June 12^th.  

Well, It’s Thursday and I share Nik’s pathway photo
because of its Colorado Rocky Mountain – red rock beauty and as a visual
encouragement to get on or stay on the path of Christian Discipleship. Since I
put my faith in Jesus Christ in 2010 and was “born again” I have learned that
Christianity isn’t just about what you believe, it also involves what you do
with the wisdom that the word of God and Jesus Christ taught us.  

Just as Nik and the board at Deeper Walk
International set time aside to plan out their ministry’s future steps, what
they believe in and what they were planning to do really won’t matter unless
they put their plans into action. 

Similarly, in our personal walk of faith, we can believe,
say we believe, and even plan to start living a Christian life but at the end
of the day, we have to put our plans into action and start walking in the
Spirit.  

Last night at the Celebrate Freedom Growth Group,
our nightly check-in was filled with testimonies of people who have put their
trust in the Lord to help them change their lives and how although they are still
a work in progress, because they followed the path that the Lord put before
them, progress is being made.  Many people
reported how their lives are moving in a positive direction since they have
sought the Lord’s help and received some biblical wisdom and the support of a
Christian fellowship.  

Based on these positive testimonies you may think
that all you need to do to go to our weekly meeting and the Lord will
supernaturally bless your socks off and instantly change your mind and heart
and give you the power to overcome.

However, as they say on TV sometimes – results may vary
–  our meeting is great but the work that
the Lord does in our lives doesn’t all happen in two hours at a growth group
meeting on Wednesday, or during an hour-long church service on Sunday.  When we put our faith in Christ, we make a
decision for eternity and so our new lives in Christ are supposed to be pursued
as part of a lifelong process of seeking to know God more and to be transformed
to be more and more like Christ.  

Although there were positive reports during our
check-in, there were also some very honest reports of failures and no
progress.  While some are reporting
victory over their hurts, habits, and hangups – others admitted that although
they had a few days of victory, they fell into temptation since our last
meeting. One participant could barely speak during the check-in because they
were emotionally upset by their lack of progress. For them hearing the positive
reports from others filled them with shame and condemnation. 

We don’t correct or try to fix one another in our
group – we encourage and support one another and offer the members of our group
the wisdom and tools that can lead to victory, but they have to choose to pick
up the tools and put them to work.  Our
group is an incubator for growth. We provide the setting, conditions, and
instruction that could lead to breakthroughs and victory but in order to
experience them the individual is personally responsible for choosing and doing
the work of repentance.  

We don’t condemn people for their failures, but we
encourage them to lean on the Lord and the support of the group to plan for and
make a change.

But last night, when this person could barely speak
because of their shame over their lack of progress and was obviously condemning
themselves, I had to speak and tell them that they were perpetuating a lie of
the enemy by reminding them that they are not accepted because of their
progress and that their value is not determined by their victory in a certain
area of their life.  Because they didn’t have
victory over their area of struggle, they couldn’t see anything positive about
their life – so I encouraged them by naming some of their positive attributes
and recommended they meditate on the truth of who God says they are with the “Who
I Am in Christ” list.   

The group also encouraged those who had fallen into
relapse by pointing out even their unsuccessful efforts were progress in
comparison to their unabashed behaviors in the past.  Even if you are giving into temptation less –
relapsing less frequently – that’s progress for them and even the few days or
hours they were successful in not giving in is a victory.  

Although we were steadfast in our support of those
who had setbacks, I also made a concerted effort to offer counsel to each of
them before the end of the night to encourage them to take corrective action by
making a plan and enacting it so they could start walking in the right
direction and have a goal they could work toward and achieve.  

“ I need to change” is a great admission but we need
to establish short and long term goals that will make that change a reality.
Meandering in shame and guilt because you haven’t changed doesn’t do any good.  Knowing you have a problem is a big first step
but leaning on the Lord and enacting a plan to solve it is what the Lord is calling
us to do.  

We don’t stay in our darkness. We turn from it and
walk away from it.   And while we offer support and understanding
for people when they fail, we encourage them to not do it again and seek to “do
what is right”.  In my counsel, I try to
validate people’s emotions and comfort them by conveying that I understand how
difficult it can be to go “God’s way”, but I also try to assure them that it is
the WAY that is right and will lead to peace and joy when it is pursued in
earnest.  

Our lives in Christ are a relationship, but we have
to do our part in agreeing with what God says about us and by walking out our
lives in a manner that would best represent His kingdom. When we do things our
way or the world’s way, we deny God’s truth and separate ourselves from His
love and power.  So believe the truth about
God and who you are in Christ but also make a plan to start “walking the walk”
and start moving towards the person God created you to 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 Anger, Hot Temper.

Proverbs 29:22 (ESV)
²²  A man of wrath stirs up
strife, and one given to anger causes many transgressions.

Today’s
verse falls under the ninth point of our counseling reference guide resource’s
section on Anger,
Hot Temper

 9. Control Yourself

Today’s verse is the second
of three verses of scripture that our resource provides to encourage us to
control ourselves. And rather than presenting them all at once, we are doing
them “one at a time, one day at a time. 

Today’s verse points out
the truth of the cause-and-effect relationship between our angry dispositions
and the negative consequences that result. Wrath leads to strife. Anger leads
to transgressions. And just so you know, strife and transgressions are NOT good
things.  So the implication is that we
should NOT be full of wrath or anger because they lead to problems, discord,
and disharmony.  

So practice forgiveness
and patience and develop ways of responding to difficult situations that are
not angry or wrathful because no matter how righteous our indignation can start
out being – more often than not – our wrath and anger lead to transgressions or
strife.

——————————————————————–

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

27 – The Spirit Transforming

The
“Glass”

The “glass” in which the glory of the Lord is
revealed and beheld by us is His written Word, as is clear by a comparison with
James 1:22–25. Yet let it be carefully borne in mind that the Scriptures have two principal parts, being divided into
two Testaments. Now the contents of those two Testaments may be summed up,
respectively, in the Law and the Gospel. That which is outstanding in the Old
Testament is the Law; that which is
preeminent in the New Testament is the
Gospel. Thus, in giving an exposition or explanation of the “glass” in
which believers behold the Lord’s glory, we cannot do better than say, It is in
the Law and the Gospel His glory is set before us. It is absolutely essential
to insist on this amplification, for a distinctive
“glory of the Lord” is revealed in
each one, and to both of them is the
Christian conformed (or “changed”) by the Spirit.

Should anyone say
that we are “reading our own thoughts into” the meaning of the “glass” in which
the glory of the Lord is revealed, and object to our insisting this signifies,
first the Law, we would point out
this is fully borne out by the immediate context of 2 Corinthians 3:18, and
what is found there obliges us to
take this view. The Apostle is there comparing and contrasting the two great
economies, the Mosaic and the Christian, showing that the preeminence of the
one over the other lay in the former being an external ministration (the “letter”), whereas the latter is internal (the “spirit”), in the heart;
nevertheless, he affirms that the former ministration “was glorious” (v. 7), and “if the ministration of condemnation be glorious” (v. 9), “for even that which
is made glorious” (v. 10), “if that
which was done away was glorious” (v.
11)—all being explained by the fact that the glory of the Lord was exhibited
therein.

In the “glass” of the
Law the Lord gave a most wondrous revelation of His “glory.” The Law has been
aptly and rightly designated “a transcript of the Divine nature,” though (as is
to be expected) some of our modems have taken serious exception to that statement,
thereby setting themselves in opposition to the Scriptures. In Romans 8:7 we
are told “the carnal mind is enmity against God,” and the proof furnished of
this declaration is, “for it is not
subject to the Law of God,” which,
manifestly, is only another way of saying that the Law is a transcript of the
very character of God. So again we read, “The law is holy, and the commandment
holy, and just, and good” (Rom. 7:12): what is that but a summarized
description of the Divine perfections! If God Himself is “holy and just and
good” and the Law is an immediate reflection of His very nature, then it will
itself be “holy and just and good.” Again, if God Himself is “love” (1 John
4:8) and the Law is a glass in which His perfections shine, then that which the
Law requires, all that is required, will be love,
and that is exactly the case: Matthew 22:37–39.

What a word is that
in Exodus 24:16, “And the glory of the
LORD abode upon Mount Sinai.” Yes, the glory of the Lord was as really and
truly manifested at Sinai as it is displayed now at Mount Zion—that man in his
present state was unable to appreciate the awe-inspiring display which God
there made of His perfections, in no way alters that fact, for He is a God to
be feared as well as loved. In the “glass” of the Law we behold the glory of
the Lord’s majesty and sovereignty, the glory of His government and authority,
the glory of His justice and holiness. Yes, and the “glory” of His goodness in framing such a Law which
requires us to love Him with all our hearts, and for His sake, His creatures,
our neighbors as ourselves.

But the “glory of the
Lord” is further manifested in the “glass” of the Gospel, in which God has made
a fuller and yet more blessed revelation of His moral perfections than He did
at Sinai. Now the Gospel necessarily implies or presupposes the following
things. First, a broken Law, and its transgressors utterly unable to repair its
breach. Second, that God graciously determined to save a people from its curse.
Third, that He purposes to do so without making light of sin, without
dishonoring the Law, and without compromising His holiness—otherwise, so far
from the Gospel being the best news of all, it would herald the supreme
calamity. How this is effected, by and through Christ, the Gospel makes known.
In His own Son, God shines forth in meridian splendor, for Jesus Christ is the
brightness of His glory, the express image of His Person. In Christ the veil is
rent, the Holy of Holies is exposed to full view, for now we behold “The light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6).

In the Gospel is
displayed not only the amazing grace and infinite mercy, but also and mainly
the “manifold wisdom” of God. Therein
we learn how grace is exercised righteously, how mercy is bestowed honorably,
how transgressors are pardoned justly. God did not deem it suitable to the
honor of His majesty to sovereignly pardon sinners without a satisfaction being
offered to Himself, and therefore did He appoint a Mediator to magnify the Law and
make it honorable. The great design of the incarnation, life and death of
Christ, was to demonstrate in the most public manner that God was worthy of all
that love, honor and obedience which the Law required, and that sin was as
great an evil as the punishment threatened supposed. The heart of the glorious
Gospel of Christ is the Cross, and there we see all the Divine perfections
fully displayed: in the death of the Lord Jesus the Law was magnified, Divine
holiness vindicated, sin discountenanced, the sinner saved, grace glorified,
and Satan defeated.^[1]

—————————more
tomorrow————————

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Breaker”, “Freedom in Christ” series of Discipleship Classes via the mt4christ247
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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