Rescued! Answered Prayers and the Local Good News that
Points to a Good God – Purity 1162
Purity 1162 10/03/2023 Purity 1162 Podcast
Purity 1162 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of a rainbow of autumn colors on
display in the leaves of a stand of roadside trees, beneath an October blue sky,
comes to us from Tara Becker who shared this scene on social media yesterday,
highlighting her visit to Blue Mountain Lake in the Adirondack region of
upstate New York with the simple caption – “Beautiful, Peaceful…heart emoji – ADK.
Well, it’s Tuesday, and today there is a peace that
has come to the residents of upstate New York that far surpasses what even a
tranquil day in the Adirondacks can bring: the peace of knowing that God still
answers prayers and sometimes uses the dedicated efforts of first responders to
save that which was lost. Since Sunday
morning our region in upstate NY was made aware of the abduction of a 9-year-old
girl, Charlotte Sena, via an Amber Alert causing the upstate community to be unified
in their hopes that this young girl would be found and leading many to petition
the Lord with prayer for her safe return. Last evening those prayers were
answered as law enforcement officials rescued Sena and apprehended the suspect
responsible for her disappearance. I am including a link to News Channel 13’s
coverage on the story last night (https://wnyt.com/top-stories/missing-girl-found-alive/)
on the blog, which reveals that Charlotte’s abduction was possibly motivated by
greed as the news reports that Charlotte’s rescue and the apprehension of the
suspect, Craig Nelson Ross Jr., 47, developed after a ransom note was left at
Charlotte’s home in the early morning hours yesterday.
While the case was broken by good police investigative
techniques, many of my Christian friends and other people of faith were
rightfully offering their thanks and praises to God last night when the news of
Charlotte’s rescue broke because they had earnestly petitioned the Lord for her
safe return. In a world that has become somewhat
desensitized to the facts of crimes against children, we have all been blessed
by this example of good overcoming evil and whether we want to put our appreciation
on the efforts of our first responders or on a gracious God who still answered
prayers, I think we can all agree that this is good news!
This story reaches into our hearts because of the
love that we have for our families and our children, and it reveals some basic
truths of our existence here on earth.
Taking what doesn’t belong to you is wrong – regardless of motivation or
rationalizations. Taking what doesn’t belong
to you – for profit or pleasure – is evil.
The extreme of child abduction makes this simple truth, that is
repeatedly spoken of in scripture, all the clearer. There really are no shades
of grey in light of God’s truth.
In regard to theft, and the true root of all evil –
our desires, the Bible tells us:
Exodus 20:15 (NKJV)
15 “You shall not steal.
Exodus 20:17 (NKJV)
17 “You shall not covet
your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male
servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is
your neighbor’s.”
Anything, including their children.
Whether or not this suspect hatched this latest
crime as a get-rich scheme, the Bible tells us, in
1 Timothy 6:10 (NKJV)
10 For the love of money is a
root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in
their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
This man, possibly motivated by money, abducted a
child and wandered away for simple human decency, and now will face many
sorrows as he will be rightly held responsible for his crime.
The successful rescue of the innocent in these cases
are not typical and we thank God and the first responders for saving this child
and reminding us that there is still good in the world that exemplifies the
truth of Bible verses like:
Proverbs 10:2 (NKJV)
2 Treasures of wickedness
profit nothing, But righteousness delivers from death.
Forgive me for taking this verse out of
context, but in this instance, the possible hope for treasures of wickedness
did profit nothing, and the righteous did deliver an innocent from possible
death.
There are not many miracles happening
today and when good triumphs over evil and an innocent is saved, I can’t help
but thank God who put whatever goodness that is common to man in us and to the
One who died to save us all, Jesus Christ.
So as we go about another day in the life here
on earth, let’s rejoice over this girl’s salvation from evil and the goodness behind
the rescue. Let’s encourage one another to recognize the righteous efforts of
man to protect us from evil here on earth and the God who motivates us to do good and who calls
us all to salvation and to walk in righteousness with Him forever.
——————————————————————————————–
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 verses come from the section on Anger, Hot Temper.
Colossians 3:8 (ESV)
8 But now you must put them
all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
Today’s
verses fall under the eleventh point of our counseling reference guide
resource’s section on Anger, Hot Temper
11. Good news! Through
the Spirit you can overcome the sin of a hot temper!
Today’s verse is the second of two passages of scripture that
our resource provides to encourage us with this good news. And rather than
presenting them all at once, we are doing them “one at a time, one day at a
time.
Today’s verse encourages us to walk in
righteousness with the speak and the way we carry ourselves through this world,
pointing out that what we say and how we conduct ourselves matters.
This verse tells us to put away anger,
wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from our mouths. Colossians is a
letter to the church, and it tells us that obscene talk and the obscene
attitudes associated with anger are not appropriate for the Christians. We may be street-smart and corrupted by the
world to “talk trash” and be “mean mugging’” before we come to Christ, but
after we have been forgiven and welcomed into God’s kingdom, we are to put
those old habits away for good. We are no longer to be concerned with
representing our “school of hard knocks” – “rough and tumble” lives of our
pasts. Instead as members of God’s kingdom, we are to righteously represent the
Prince of Peace and His righteousness.
So we turn our frowns upside down,
forgive those who offend us, and live in the love of God and when we are
grounded in the reality of who we are in Christ and we remember all that we
have received from God, we can let go of our angry ways and to speak life rather
than the obscene curses of a world that is bitter and broken.
So seek the peace of God, find it and live
in it and start talking the talk of love and walking the walk of righteousness.
——————————————————————–
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
Occupation
and Application
“Mine eye affecteth mine heart” (Lam. 3:51).
We are influenced by the objects we contemplate, we become ostensibly
assimilated to those with whom we have much intercourse, we are molded by the
books we read. This same law or principle operates in the spiritual realm: “But
we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are
changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the
Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18)—beholding, we are changed. Here, then, is our
responsibility: to use the means
which God has appointed for our growth in grace, to be daily occupied with
spiritual objects and heavenly things. Yet our
study and contemplation of the Truth will not, by itself, produce any
transformation: there must be a Divine
application of the Truth to the heart. Apart from the Divine agency and
blessing all our efforts and use of the means amount to nothing, and therefore
is it added “We are changed … by the
Spirit.”
Just as surely as
Christ’s all-mighty power will, on the resurrection morning, transform the
bodies of His people from mortality to life and from dishonor to glory, so also
does the Holy Spirit now exert a supernatural power in morally transforming the
characters of those whom He indwells. The great difference between these
two—the future work of Christ upon the bodies of the saints and the present
work of the Spirit upon their souls—is that the one will be accomplished
instantaneously, whereas the other is effected slowly and gradually. The one we
shall be fully conscious of, the other we are largely unconscious of. This
being “changed into the same image”
of the glory of the Lord is a progressive experience, as the “from glory to
glory” plainly intimates—from one degree of it to another. It is begun at
regeneration, is continued throughout our sanctification, and will be perfected
at our glorification.
Now that which deeply
exercises and so often keenly distresses the sincere Christian is that as he
seeks to honestly examine himself he discovers so very little evidence that he
IS being “changed into” the image of the Lord. He dare not take anything for
granted, but desires to “prove” himself (2 Cor. 13:5). The moral transformation
of which we have been treating is that which supplies proof of spiritual
illumination, and without at least a measure of it, all supposed saving
knowledge of the Truth is but a delusion. We shall therefore endeavor now to
point out some of the leading features by which this transformation may be
identified, asking the reader to carefully compare himself with each one.[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
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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)
“The views, opinions, and commentary of this
publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to
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Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship
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