Mindful to Worship – Purity 1160

Mindful to Worship – Purity 1160

Purity 1160 09/30/2023 Purity 1160 Podcast

Purity 1160 on YouTube: 

Good morning,

Today’s photo a rainbow turned to gold in a pink and
purple hazy sky comes to us Mindful of Christ’s Lauren Roskilly who shared this
view on social media back on August 11^th, stating at the time that
although she was driving, she just had to stop the car to admire and capture
this moment as the rainbow was literally changing before her eyes. 

Well, it’s Saturday and I am sharing Lauren’s photo
because of its beauty and because I admire the work that Lauren does through Mindful
in Christ (https://mindfulofchrist.net/)
and can relate to having to stop and stand in admiration and awe when we watch things
or people change before our eyes. 

Lauren’s testimony is a testament to how the Lord
can heal and change us, as is mine, and through my latest call – to lead The Celebrate
Freedom Growth Group at Starpoint Church – I am witnessing people literally changing
before my eyes.  In the 20 weeks since we
have begun meeting as a group, I have watched people grow in their faith and
overcome a variety of hurts, habits, and hang-ups and even though my day-to-day
life  can be a bit hectic at times, it is
good to pause, reflect, and admire the work that the Lord has done in changing people’s
lives – giving them victory, freedom, a hope, and a future.   God is so GOOD and one of the best things –
perhaps the most appropriate things – we can do is to worship Him.   

To be completely honest, this morning I slept a
little bit later than usual because I didn’t notice my phone wasn’t plugged into
its charger properly and I started the morning with the frantic thoughts of “What
am I going to write about?” and I decided to lean on a little help from my
friends and am going to share a message from Lauren Roskilly that encourages us
to worship the Lord and to seek His help, that she sent out to those who
subscribe to Mindful in Christ’s email this past Wednesday that she based on Matthew
15:25.   Matthew 15:21-28 tells the story
of how Jesus agreed to deliver a Gentile woman’s daughter from demonic possession
when she worshiped Him and persisted in asking for help.

Matthew 15:25 (NLT2) tells us
²⁵  But she came and worshiped
him, pleading again, “Lord, help me!”

Lauren’s Mindful in Christ’s – “Word for
Wednesday” stated: 

“Ask
Jesus to help!

Do
you think you’re beyond help, perhaps you’re exhausted, fed up or nothing seems
to be changing in your circumstances? Or do you feel lost?

Then
we are to take the example of this Gentile woman in the book of Matthew.

1.
Go to Jesus

2.
Worship Him (whether you feel like it or not) Put on the worship music if you
can’t do it alone, you’ll be surprised at how changing your focus helps you
too!

3.
Plead to Jesus

If
you don’t know what to say or how to pray anymore then simply ask, “Lord
help me!”

I’ve
felt like this (even recently) and the one thing that we can do is to be
intentional and turn our focus & and attention back to Jesus.

Give
Him the worship He deserves (whether you want to or not)  and reach out to Him, beg Him to help you as
this woman did.

And
be reassured, Jesus was sent to help the lost, (as it says in verse 24) so hang
in there and use this woman’s actions as an example of how you too can come to
Jesus and how He can meet you where you are today.”

I love Lauren’s simple advice to us to
simply to Go to Jesus in worship and to ask Him for help.   At the Celebrate Freedom Growth Group
meeting, each week we set aside some time as a group to worship the Lord in
song! I intentionally set that time after our group’s check in – where the
members report on what’s happening in their lives over the last week.  Some of those check-ins report on victories
but we encourage “keeping it real” and they also report on the various trials
and problems that are happening too.

So after what can be some pretty heavy
moments of reporting life’s difficulties – I attempt to encourage a change in
the narrative by directing the members to also share something they are
thankful for or something good that has happened in their lives – but to
release the tension and to honor our Lord – I direct everyone to stand up,
shake out the tension in their bodies, and to join together in singing to the
Lord – to worship Him.  

Our worship is a weapon against the
spiritual forces of darkness and our own negative mindsets. Our worship is a
spiritual discipline that brings us into the presence of the Lord and provides
us with a means to attach to Him relationally. When we worship the Lord, we acknowledge
our understanding of who He is, and we can express our love and appreciation
for Him and what He has done for us. Worship cements our relationship to God
and can be a means to break through!  

So as we have made it to the weekend, I
encourage you to take some time to admire the things and people in your lives that
are literally changing before your eyes and to worship the Lord who loves us,
sustains us, and guides us through it all.

——————————————————————————————–

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 verses come from the section on Anger, Hot Temper.

Galatians 5:19-21 (ESV)
¹⁹  Now the works of the flesh
are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,
²⁰  idolatry, sorcery, enmity,
strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,
²¹  envy, drunkenness, orgies,
and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do
such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

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

 10. Fits of rage belong to your sinful
nature, the way of sin.”

Today’s verses highlight
the works of the flesh and with this list of activities – which includes “fits
of anger”,  it should be clear that these
are “sin” and should be repented of. 

However, the devil’s
advocates out there may argue that they are not “all bad”  so the Apostle Paul makes it clear in verse
21 that “those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”  If your life reflects a lifestyle of the “works
of the flesh” more than the “works of the Spirit”, you may be “fooling yourself”
and others about being a Christian, but you won’t fool God and you run the risk
of being told that “I never knew you” by Jesus when you enter into eternity and
find yourself in hell!  

Whoa! This was one of the
passages in the Bible that sent me into recovery for my “drunkenness”. I was an
alcoholic – a functional alcoholic – a cultural alcoholic – a binge drinking
alcoholic – a periodic alcoholic. My alcoholism was part of my identity.  I drank and, unlike some others I have met in
recovery who secretly hid their alcoholism,  I didn’t hide it. Drinking alcohol was what I did,
and I thought it was a fundamental part of who I was.  And I suppose it was, but when I put my faith
in Christ, I became a new creation, and it was only a matter of believing and receiving
the truth of that – that caused me to walk away from my lifestyle in drunkenness
and the other works of the flesh – because most of the other ones were part of
my lifestyle too – including “fits of anger”. 

Anger is pretty commonplace,
but our resource does us a great service in pointing out that it is part of our
sin nature – I object – that should say our “old man” – because when we are
born again – we have one nature – Christ’s – and repentance is the act of walking
into the new nature we have been given. The old man is dead – but we have to
choose to live as the new man by actually turning from our sin and doing
it.  

But regardless of that
possible error in understanding, our resource rightly points out that anger is a
work of the flesh- a way of sin – and thus it should, along with all those
other works of the flesh be repented of.  

Before Christ I lived in
the “way of sin” – and fits of anger was tied up in that mess of the works of
the flesh-  but after I started to agree
with who I am in Christ and repented, I was less and less angry.  Fits of anger don’t represent a life in the Spirit
and if you are “angry all the time” – you need to repent because the word of
God indicates that your angry disposition could mean that you still belong to
the kingdom of darkness and be on the highway to hell.

——————————————————————–

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

“Changed
into the Same Image”

“But we all:” that is, all who have been
supernaturally brought from death unto life, out of darkness into God’s
marvelous light. “With open face,” or “unveiled face,” as it is in the Greek
and as the R.V. translates it: that is, with hearts from which “the veil” of
prejudice (2 Cor. 3:15) has been removed, from which that “covering cast over
all people” (Isa. 25:7), the covering of enmity against God, has been
destroyed. “Beholding”—note carefully the present tense, for it is a continuous
action which is here in view; “as in a glass” or “mirror,” namely, the twofold
glass of the Law and the Gospel; “the glory of the Lord,” that is His
communicable perfections, His moral character; “are changed into the same image,” this clause it is which must next
engage our careful attention.

Following our usual
custom, let us first give a brief definition and then amplify the same. To be
changed into “the same image” means that the regenerated soul becomes conformed
unto the Divine character, that answerable principles and affections are
wrought in his heart, bringing him into harmony with the perfections of God.
This must be the case, for since
Divinely enlightened souls have such a relish for holy beauty, for such beauty as there is in the character
of God, then it necessarily follows that every Divine truth as it comes into
their view will appear beautiful, and will accordingly beget and excite holy
affections corresponding with its nature. Or, more specifically, as the heart
is occupied with the several perfections of God exhibited in the Law and in the
Gospel, corresponding desires and determinations will be awakened in and
exercised by that soul.

It would imply a
contradiction to suppose that any heart should be charmed with a character just
the opposite to its own. The carnal mind is enmity against God: resenting His
authority, disliking His holiness, hating His sovereignty, and condemning His
justice: in a word, it is immediately opposed to His glory as it shines in the
glass of the Law and the Gospel. But one who has been Divinely enlightened
loves the Truth because he has a frame of heart answerable thereto—just as the
unregenerate soul loves the world because it suits his depraved tastes. The
regenerate discerns and feels that the Law is righteous in requiring what it
does, even though it condemns him for his disobedience. He perceives, too, that
the Gospel is exactly suited to his needs and that its precepts are wise and
excellent. Thus he is brought into conformity with the one and into compliance
with the other.

Universal experience
teaches us that characters appear agreeable or disagreeable just as they suit
our taste or not. To an angel, who has a taste for holy beauty, the moral
character of God appears infinitely amiable; but to the Devil, who is being of
a contrary taste, God’s moral character appears just the reverse. To the
Pharisees, no character was more odious than that of the Lord Jesus; but at the
same time Mary and Martha and Lazarus were charmed with Him. To the Jewish
nation in general, who groaned under the Roman yoke, and longed for a Messiah
to set them at liberty, to make them victorious, rich and honorable—a Messiah
in the character of a temporal prince, who had gratified their desires—such an
one had appeared glorious in their eyes, and they would have been changed into
the same image; that is, every answerable affection had been excited in their
hearts.

Now it is this moral
transformation in the believer which is the
evidence of his spiritual enlightenment: “beholding,” he is “changed.”
Where a soul has been supernaturally illumined there will issue a corresponding
conformity to the Divine image. But in so affirming, many of our Christian
readers are likely to feel that we are thereby cutting off their hopes. They
will be ready to exclaim, Alas, my
character resembles the likeness of Satan far more than it does the image of
God. Let us, then, ease the tension a little. Observe, dear troubled souls,
this transformation is not effected instantaneously, but by degrees: this great “change” is not
accomplished by the Spirit in a moment, but is a gradual work. This is plainly
signified in the “from glory to glory,” which means, from one degree
of it to another. Only as this fact is apprehended can our poor hearts be
assured before God.

This expression “from
glory to glory” is parallel with “the rain also filleth the pools: they go from
strength to strength” (Ps. 84:6, 7), which means that under the gracious
revivings of the Spirit, believers are renewed again and again, and so go on
from one degree of strength to another. So in Romans 1:17 we read of “from
faith to faith,” which means from little faith to more faith, until sometimes
it may be said, “your faith groweth exceedingly” (2 Thess. 1:3). So it is with
this blessed “change” which the Spirit works in believers. The first degree of
it is effected at their regeneration.
The second degree of it is accomplished during their progressive (practical) sanctification. The third and last
degree of it takes place at their glorification.
Thus “the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day”
(Prov. 4:18).^[1]

—————————more
tomorrow————————

Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage
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