You Follow Me.” – Purity 1168
Purity 1168 10/10/2023 Purity 1168 Podcast
Purity 1168 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of my canine pal, Harley looking
toward the fields just off of Waite Rd near the tree at the fork in the road
where we take extended walks into private farmlands when the weather is right
comes to us from yours truly as the conditions were perfect yesterday afternoon
to take my time on my final walk before hitting the road to River House, to
enjoy the weather, and to thank God for His provision, protection, favor and
love.
Even though I have to admit that I had some failures
with my food plan this past weekend – my walking tour of Chicago included the
local cuisine and I had to get my money’s worth and I ate way too many apples
while apple-picking at Hicks Orchard in Granville yesterday to celebrate the
Autumn harvest, I was reminded just how
good it is to be loved by God.
While deviations from my recovery from food
addiction are no small matter, and I will be taking measures to get back on
track by tracking my food intake and planning my meals for success, it really is a comfort to know that God accepts
not because of my performance, but because of His grace that caused me to put
my faith in Jesus who not only paid the cost for all of my sins –(past,
present, and future) but because I died with Christ and was raised with Him – I
also received His righteousness. Jesus’ righteousness is imputed to anyone who
puts their faith in Him. Regardless of our past or present performance, Jesus
pays for our sins and makes us righteous in God’s eyes. We are not saved because of our good deeds or
through acts of penance.
Ephesians
2:8-10 (NKJV) tells us
8 For by grace you have been
saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should
boast.
10 For we are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand that we should walk in them.
We are saved and accepted by God
because of His grace – which is a huge comfort to us when we don’t do
everything right.
While we want to walk in
righteousness and represent God’s kingdom, its good to know that God isn’t
going to reject us if we fall into sin.
In scripture the Apostle Peter denied Christ three times before he was
crucified, but after His resurrection, Jesus restored Peter to His purpose of
leading the church in John 21, where he directed Him to not worry about what
would happen to the other disciples but to stay focused on following Him,
John 21:22 (NKJV) tells
us
22 Jesus said to him, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that
to you? You follow Me.”
You
Follow Me.
That’s
the command that Jesus has for all of us and in our personal walk we shouldn’t
compare ourselves, positively or negatively, to others but should walk out the
path that God puts before us.
My
path has led me to take on my food addiction. While my recent failures could
cause me to condemn myself as “not doing it right” or “relapsing”, that
narrative is not productive. God doesn’t
call us to beat ourselves up, He calls us to repent and to do what is
right.
Romans 8:1-2 (NKJV) tells us
1 There is therefore
now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according
to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
So since I am in Christ Jesus,
because I put my faith in Him as Lord and Savior, I am not to condemn myself – but I am also
not to continue in walking according to the flesh! We don’t just pat ourselves
on the back when we sin and say “That’s okay. You are forgiven. No condemnation.
Carry on.”
No, Christ was merciful but He
always tempered His mercy with the call to repentance, telling the woman caught
in the act of adultery, in:
John 8:11 (NKJV)
11 …, “Neither
do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”
Verse 2 in Romans 8 confirms that we
have been set free from the law of sin and death (which means that those
things, sin and death, no longer have authority over us. Because of Christ-
death has lost its sting because we live forever. Similarly, sin has lost its
power over those in Christ. Our ability
to say no to sin proves our freedom over sin because of Christ. We just have to
abide in Christ by living in the Spirit to increase and maintain our freedom
and victory over sin.
But as Jesus warned the disciples in
Matthew 26:41 (NKJV) , we should
41 Watch
and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak.”
So we may fail in our walk from time
to time, but we don’t lose our salvation and we shouldn’t condemn ourselves. Instead,
we should follow the Apostle John’s instructions in
1 John 1:9 (NKJV) where we are told that:
9 If we confess our sins, He
is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.
If we fall off we are to confess it and repent and go to
God to receive the comfort, strength, and guidance to repent and “sin no more.”
– we are to go to God to ask Him to help us to be cleansed from all
unrighteousness.
So after my “walking in the flesh” and not being a good
steward to my body, I am comforted by the fact that I can be restored to a
harmonious relationship with the Lord by confessing my “sin” and by committing
myself to “following Him” to ask for His help in cleansing me from all
unrighteousness.
And because we encourage honesty, personal responsibility,
and accountability in discipleship and recovery, we also echo the advice
in
James 5:16 (NKJV) that tells us to
16 Confess your
trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed…
We have our forgiveness through Jesus but we can be healed
and set free from bondages through help from our brothers and sisters in Christ
to support and encourage us to walk in the Spirit. When we fall down, we don’t stay down,
instead, we call out to Jesus for help and reach out to take the hands of our
fellow Christians that will help us to walk in the way we should go.
So let’s God for His mercy, grace, love and the new life of
freedom that He has given us and let’s remember to not condemn ourselves as we
try to answer the Lord’s call when he says “ “You follow me.”
——————————————————————————————–
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 Assurance of Salvation.
1 John 5:13 (NKJV)
13 These things I have
written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know
that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the
name of the Son of God.
Today’s
verse fall under the fourth point of our counseling reference guide resource’s
section on Assurance
of Salvation.
4. You may know that you have eternal life.
Today’s verse seeks to
encourage us to know that we have eternal life so we will continue to believe
in the name and person of Jesus.
As I stated above, we are saved by grace and because we won’t be
perfect in our walk of faith, we need to remember that our salvation is a “done
deal” the moment we place our faith in Jesus Christ. We need to remind ourselves that we are
saved. We have a new and eternal life in Christ. Why? Because we have believed in Jesus as our
Lord.
Our salvation isn’t because of us. It is because of Jesus and
because it is due to Him we can have peace. So remember that and know that you
have eternal life.
——————————————————————–
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
29 –The Spirit Confirming
In view of the preceding chapter on the Spirit preserving, there is really no need for
us to take up another aspect of the subject which so closely approximates
thereto—yet a little reflection has persuaded us that it may be wise to do so.
Some of our readers are fearful that the editor wavers on the blessed truth of
the eternal security of the Christian. Some Arminians, because of our strong
emphasis upon the absolute supremacy and sovereignty of God and the total
impotency of fallen men unto holiness, have charged us with denying human
responsibility, when the fact is that we go much farther than they do in the
holding and proclaiming of man’s accountability. On the other hand, some
Calvinists, because we insist so emphatically and frequently on the imperative
necessity of treading the Highway of Holiness in order to escape the
everlasting burnings, have questioned our soundness on the final perseverance
of the saints; when probably, as our writing on suicide shows, we believe this
truth more fully than they do. Very
few today hold the balance of the Truth.[1]
—————————more
tomorrow————————
Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage
Breaker”, “Freedom in Christ” series of Discipleship Classes via the mt4christ247
podcast!
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These teachings are also available on the
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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
reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries,
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Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship
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